Arelatively recent entrant to the commercial banking scene in Cambodia, PhillipBank has made it a point to target the Kingdom’s small- and medium-sized business owners . The Phnom Penh Post Special Reports editor Moeun Nhean sat down with bank CEO Han Peng Kwang recently to talk about the different services PhillipBank provides, the reasons behind its rapid growth in the market and its plans for what seems an increasingly bright future.

 

Could you tell us the background of PhillipBank? When and where was it established? Who are the main shareholders?

PhillipBank, formerly known as HwangDBS Commercial Bank, was established in July 2009. The bank is a member of the PhillipCapital Group. Since 1975, the PhillipCapital network has grown into an integrated Asian financial house with a global presence that offers a full range of quality and innovative services to retail and high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and corporate and institutional customers.

Its comprehensive suite of financial products and services includes brokering in securities, futures, foreign exchange, bonds, precious metals and commodities, unit trusts, exchange traded funds; fund management, managed accounts, insurance planning, regular savings plans, investment research, equity financing and property consultancy. Institutions can also benefit from our corporate finance and advisory services as well as information technology solutions.

With more than 3,500 employees and over 900,000 clients worldwide, PhillipCapital’s assets under custody/management total more than $24 billion, with shareholders’ funds in excess of $1 billion.

PhillipCapital (with headquarters in Singapore) operates in the financial hubs of 16 countries, including offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, UAE, UK, France, Turkey and the US. The sole shareholder of PhillipBank is PhillipMFI Pte Ltd, which in turn is majority owned by Mr Lim Hua Min, the chairman of PhillipCapital and PhillipBank

 

When did PhillipBank enter Cambodia? At that time, how much was Phillip Bank’s capital investment in the Kingdom?

PhillipBank entered the Cambodian banking industry in February 2014 upon the approval from the National Bank of Cambodia to acquire 100 per cent of the shares of HwangDBS Commercial Bank. The capital investment was $40 million.

 

How much has the bank grown since entering Cambodia? How many branch offices and staff does PhillipBank have nationwide?

PhillipBank (formerly HwangDBS Commercial Bank) commenced business in Cambodia in 2009 with an initial paid up capital of $20 million before the bank gradually increased its paid up capital to $40 million as of today. We currently have four branches located in Phnom Penh and employ 88 staff members. We will increase our staff to more than 100 very soon, and to accomodate them, we plan to relocate our head office to a much larger building on Monivong Boulevard. We are also opening a new branch in Sen Sok district by the first quarter of 2015. We intend to gradually expand our branch network to all the major provinces in Cambodia within the next few years, as well as to work closely with our related company, KreditMFI Plc, to serve more customers in the country.

 

Who are the target clients of PhillipBank? What types of your services do you offer for those clients?

Our target clients are the small- and medium-size enterprise owners. We strongly believe in them, their passion, their vision, their energy, their commitment, their drive and their hunger to grow and expand their businesses. As an emerging economy, Cambodia has a young and dynamic population that will be able to contribute much to the country and its economic development. We strive to be their partner in finance to assist them in their growth.

As a commercial bank, we are strongly committed to offering our clients a range of financial products that will benefit them. Currently we offer banking products that business owners and professionals alike would find useful, such as our Phillip Auto Save Account, which is a current account that pays up to 2 per cent interest per annum on the credit balances, payroll services, remittance services and others. We also provide business loans to the customers to assist them in expanding their business when they need more assets or a higher level of working capital.

Besides SMEs, PhillipBank also targets clients who want to purchase residential property, for either their own family to live in or for investment, via our Phillip MyHome Loan facility.

Finally we also want to help to instill in children the good habit of saving money from a young age and so we have revised our Kids Save Account by offering a higher interest rate, up to 3 per cent per annum, plus life insurance coverage for their parent or guardian.

 

What new products and services will PhillipBank be offering clients?

As part of our strategy to be a high-tech bank, we will be launching a new banking product very soon that will make banking more convenient for all our customers. Please look out for our announcement very soon.

 

With many years of success both here and internationally, please tell us what you feel are PhillipBank’s strong points?

As PhillipCapital has been successful in its ventures in other countries over the years, we believe that PhillipBank, under the capable leadership of Chairman Mr. Lim Hua Min, will duplicate that same success here in Cambodia.

As a relatively new bank in the kingdom, we believe in starting small and digging deep and looking at the long-term business rather than the short-term gain.

We believe our employees are our best assets and will train and equip our employees to provide the best services to our clients and ultimately live up to our motto: “Your Partner in Finance”.