A new member to Cambodia’s banking sector, M.G.N Emperor Bank Plc, has set eyes on becoming a leading digital bank in the Kingdom.

Seeing the huge potential for investments in the financial sector presented by Cambodia’s urban and rural economies, the bank was established with the objective of catering to a largely underserved small and medium entreprises (SMEs) market and collecting deposits from high net worth customers.

“The first focus enables us to contribute to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s effort in promoting SMEs’ access to financing,” M.G.N Emperor Bank CEO and managing director Om Visal told The Post.

According to the SME Finance Forum held in 2017, which was managed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), micro, small and medium entreprise financing gap was estimated at 21 per cent of Cambodia’s GDP, roughly valued at $4.7 billion in 2017.

As a strong supporter of digital banking development, M.G.N Emperor Bank believes fintech will play an important role in improving the financial inclusion in Cambodia.

“We incorporate fintech into our business model. To begin with, we have plans to introduce cutting-edge technology as part of our IT infrastructure, such as facial recognition technology to enhance customer experience.

“It is the first step to show we are committed in contributing to the development of Cambodia’s digital economy. In addition, we are striving to advocate and incentivise SMEs to digitally transform their business by shifting from paperwork to using digitalised systems,” said Visal.

Another of M.G.N Emperor Bank’s major plans is to set up the Emperor Banking Centre, which consist of three VIP lounges located in its headquarters building and the centre will be ready for operations by the second half of 2020.

Visal said that the centre will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and technology and manned by relationship managers from the region to provide one-stop premium banking services. The bank will also develop a mobile app for premium banking customers to book parking lots and centre facilities, reserve a timeslot with their relationship manager and monitor their transaction portfolios and activities.

For the lending market, M.G.N Emperor Bank will digitalise any necessary paperwork to shorten the turnaround time to disburse loans faster. And to be on the front foot regarding this effort, the bank has been talking to fintech companies on collaborating to develop digital banking systems.

Speaking on the matter of incentivising SMEs, especially its existing SME clients, Visal said these clients’ financial information will be uploaded on the cloud provided by the bank’s fintech partners. “This enables us to lend to them at favourable rates in accordance with our risk appetite and also in a shorter turnaround time,” he added.

Another eye-catching move on the digital end by M.G.N Emperor Bank is partnering with a tech supplier from Japan to equip their ATMs with facial recognition function. The bank will be the first to deploy this new technology in Cambodia and it will be ready by December or early 2020.

Explaining further on how M.G.N Emperor Bank will develop its digital banking services, Visal stressed that it is important for the bank and SMEs to cooperate and build a strong relationship for adapting to any digitalisation efforts.

“At some point in time, we will encourage our new and existing SME clients to leverage fintech to ensure their business model meets the demand of this digital age we are in. This move will help us to evaluate their creditworthiness,” he said.

Visal believes adopting fintech will help SMEs enhance their corporate governance or business practice, which is beneficial for them to access an alternative source of funds, for example from Cambodia Securities Exchange or attracting strategic business partners.

He hopes M.G.N Emperor Bank will gather invaluable experience in the next five years, which will be used as the foundation for its expansion into the Asean market.