Only 17 percent of the Kingdom’s population is banked, according to the findings of the FinScope Consumer Survey. The study also concluded that poor access to financial services is a key impediment to financial inclusion in rural areas.
The findings of the FinScope Consumer Survey, the first comprehensive survey of the accessibility and usage of Cambodian financial services, were released yesterday.
“The demand-side survey was undertaken to understand the status of financial inclusion, and the needs and behaviour of both women and men relating to formal and informal financial access and use,” said Neav Chantana, deputy governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), speaking at the Mekong Financial Inclusion Forum.
According to the findings of the survey, the formal financial inclusion rate in Cambodia is 59 percent, with more than a third of the population using informal services or services such as unregistered lenders or saving clubs. The study also finds that at least 29 percent use neither formal nor informal financial services, and are thus financially excluded.
Within the formal financial sector, just 17 percent of adults use banks, while 24 percent use the services of microfinance institutions (MFIs).
FinScope consumer surveys are nationally representative surveys of how individual people source their income and how they manage their financial lives and focuses on adults in a particular country. FinScope Consumer surveys have been conducted in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.
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