Major Japanese financial firm SBI Holdings Inc. has obtained a commercial bank license in Cambodia, re-entering the emerging Southeast Asian country after a four-year hiatus.
Its microfinance joint venture, SBI Ly Hour Bank Plc, will start full operations in June such as retail banking and arbitrage loans, SBI said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Japanese financial firm renamed the joint venture from Ly Hour Microfinance Institution Plc to SBI Ly Hour Bank after acquiring a 70 percent stake from Ly Hour, chairman of local financial service firm Ly Hour Group, for $44.2 million last year.