Cambodia

79% of the population of Cambodia had access to the internet at the beginning of 2022.

Following decades of war and the 1997 coup d’etat, the National Bank of Cambodia was established in 1998. While per-capita income remains low in Cambodia, it’s now one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, seeing a drop in poverty year-on-year of 1%. Cambodia’s 125% mobile penetration led to a pilot in 2009 between the Bank of Cambodia and ANZ Royal Bank for mobile-based money transfers to improve financial inclusion. Following the development, it was sold off (and transformed into Wing Money) and then changed into an agent banking model. This followed the understanding that unbanked users might not want to use their phones to send money and would prefer an over-the-counter method with an agent performing the digital transfer. Wing’s annual transaction volume has made up to 90% of the country’s GDP. The country is trying to increase digital payments as part of its National Financial Inclusion strategy, but Open Banking does not yet feature on this roadmap to 2025. 

Cambodia ranked 117th out of 134 countries in Wiley’s Digital Skills Global Index 2021.