IFC picks Cambodian partner for first foray into Myanmar

Published on Friday, 25 January 2013 

http://www.elevenmyanmar.com

 

The investment arm of the World Bank is partnering with a Cambodia-based bank to open a microfinance institution that will provide loans to the poor here, it said earlier this week.

It will be the first investment by the International Finance Corporation in Myanmar.

The IFC will lend US$2 million to Cambodia’s Acleda Bank, which will repay the IFC with shares in the unit it opened here last year, the IFC said.

Acleda Bank began as a microfinance lender and has since grown into Cambodia’s largest bank in terms of branch numbers. It has expanded into Laos and announced plans to enter China’s market.

Acleda MFI Myanmar will begin offering loans this year, the IFC said. The IFC said it planned to provide loans to more than 200,000 people by 2020, mainly women running small businesses.

Acleda’s CEO, however, said its plans to grow into a commercial bank here.

“I guess it will take us 10 years before we are fully established in Myanmar,” In Channy said in a recent interview with the finance website Upsides.  “We hope to grow together with Myanmar’s economy and start commercial banking in the future,” she said.

The new microfinance institute will also receive support from the German government’s development bank, KfW, and French banking group BRED Banque Populaire.

“Our investment in a microfinance institution is a good start to our support for Myanmar’s economic reforms in order to improve access to finance, create more jobs and reduce poverty for its people,” said Sergio Pimenta, the IFC’s director for East Asia and the Pacific.