Thai shareholders in the Cambodia Farmers Bank have been ordered to give the bank a cash infusion or risk being closed down, National Bank of Cambodia officials said Monday.
NBC banking supervision department General Director Tal Nay Im said the institution has been unable to pay depositors withdrawing from their accounts. The shareholders have been ordered to inject cash into the bank but so far have not done so, Tal Nay Im said.
She could not give details on the number of depositors affected or amount of capital shareholders have been ordered to inject.
Officials at Cambodia Farmers Bank, on Kampuchea Krom Boulevard, declined to comment on Friday. They referred all questions to central bank authorities. Cambodia Farmers has no connection to Thai Farmers Bank.
NBC Deputy Governor Soum Nipha said Cambodia Farmers Bank’s problems stemmed from financial difficulties in Thailand.
The bank will not be closed immediately, she said, but she could not say how long shareholders will have to rescue the branch.
Cambodia Farmers Bank opened in April 1992. One of its original shareholders was King Norodom Sihanouk’s daughter Princess Arunrasmey, but Suom Nipha said she believed the princess had sold her shares.
The bank is just one of several here to fall victim to the Asian economic crisis. With parent operations saddled with debts from unpaid loans, unprofitable other branches are being closed.
The Thai-owned Siam City Bank announced earlier this month it will close its local branch on Nov 1, after more than six years of operation in Cambodia.
Suom Nipha said Indonesia’s LippoBank will downsize its branch on Ang Duong Boulevard by the end of the year and leave only a company representative. LippoBank opened its Phnom Penh branch in late 1997.
LippoBank depositors have not had problems withdrawing money, Suom Nipha said. The decision to downsize was based on the ongoing financial crisis in Indonesia and was made by the bank’s headquarters in Jakarta.
A Lippo official in Phnom Penh declined comment Monday.
