Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post

ATMs line the street in Phnom Penh.

Banks in Cambodia installed 87 new ATMs in the country in 2011 as branches and card holders continued a steady increase in and outside of cities, officials said.

The Kingdom had 588 telling machines at the end of last year, up from 501 in 2010, according to the National Bank of Cambodia.

NBC Chairwoman Nguon Sokha said foreign banks entering the Cambodian market, as well as the opening of rural ATMs, accounted for the increase.

Five foreign-owned banks, including industry juggernauts Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, entered the domestic sector in 2011.

A rise in technological savviness among depositors was followed by an increase in cardholders at ACLEDA Bank Plc, the country’s largest domestically owned bank, the bank’s senior vice president for marketing Sok Sophea said.

“Before, customers were not familiar with the technology. They didn’t know how to use the machines. But this is changing very quickly,” she said.

ACLEDA cardholders grew by about 20 per cent between 2010 and 2011 with about 414,600 active ACLEDA bank cards in the country at the end of the year, Sok Sophea said.

The bank has focused on rural customers. ACLEDA opened 26 ATMs in 2011, the majority of which were outside of cities, she said.

Malaysian-owned CIMB Bank, which entered Cambodia in late 2010, deployed three ATM last year for a total of 10, Pok Nivilay, a communications representative at the bank, said recently.

Pok Nivilay said CIMB was focusing on an affluent customer base in Cambodian cities.

Although the bank doesn’t have concrete figures for ATM installations in 2012, she said CIMB has discussed putting the machines at five-kilometre intervals in target areas of Phnom Penh.