Cambodia's Hattha Bank Plc, a subsidiary of Bank of Ayudhya Pcl, the fifth-largest commercial bank in Thailand, has announced that it chose the Temenos Infinity digital platform to power the launch of its small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking business.

Swiss-based banking software company Temenos said in a statement that its platform “provides ready-to-use digital banking features to enable [banks] to quickly launch and deliver [millions of US dollars] in vital SME funding during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Temenos Infinity’s seamless customer onboarding will support the bank’s vision to quickly scale and reach 100,000 SMEs with vital funding and business banking services within five years,” Temenos said.

Hattha Bank president and CEO Hout Ieng Tong said Temenos Infinity would help the bank to provide better services and high-tech solutions for SMEs in Cambodia.

“We are thrilled to partner with Temenos as we grow our operations and empower Cambodian SMEs with frictionless digital banking services. Together, we will build a brighter future for our customers and our country.

“Temenos supports our objectives, giving us the fastest time-to-value so we can quickly respond to the needs of SMEs seeking critical funding during the pandemic.

“Temenos’ market-leading cloud technology will also provide us with a solid foundation on which we can hyper-scale our operations profitably and meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of SMEs,” he was quoted as saying.

Temenos international sales president Jean-Paul Mergeai said: “Temenos’ brings rich local experience to this partnership from their work supporting 20 Cambodian banks with market-leading cloud, open API- [application programming interface] and AI- [artificial intelligence] driven technology.

“We are proud to partner with Hattha Bank on this important mission to make digital banking better and more widely accessible to Cambodian SMEs at this crucial moment. Together with Temenos, Hattha Bank will set a new standard for SME banking in Cambodia, making frictionless business banking and human, digital experiences the norm for its SME customers,” Mergeai said.

Temenos noted that SMEs account for 99.8 per cent of all business entities in the Kingdom and represent 58 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Temenos’ open technology will support the bank’s vision to spur economic growth and generate jobs by offering business loans that enable SMEs to grow their operations.

“By selecting Temenos Infinity, Hattha Bank aims to fulfil its socio-economic duty and provide Cambodian SMEs with essential funding and access to frictionless digital banking experiences.

“Temenos Infinity’s open and flexible architecture will seamlessly connect to Hattha Bank’s core system and provide instant access to SME banking features, spanning onboarding, user management and entitlements, bulk payments and approvals and account and cash management.

“With no need for major customisation, Hattha Bank can quickly launch the new business line and respond to the needs of Cambodian SMEs navigating through the pandemic,” it said.

As of end-2019, there were 52,154 formally registered SMEs in the Kingdom, with 824,245 employees, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation.