KB Kookmin Bank (KB) announced that it has received final approval from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce to launch an integrated commercial bank, KB Prasac Bank.
KB received a license from the National Bank of Cambodia on July 16 last month to launch an integrated commercial bank through the merger of its two overseas subsidiaries, "Prasac Microfinance Institution Limited" and commercial bank "KB Cambodia Bank".
This approval comes more than a year after we submitted our license application in close consultation with the Cambodian financial authorities since early last year. In addition, on August 4, KB Prasac Bank received final approval from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce to launch KB Prasac Bank.
KB first entered Cambodia in 2009 with the establishment of KB Cambodia Bank. The bank acquired a 70% stake in Prasac Microfinance, a financial institution specializing in microcredit, in April 2020 and completed the acquisition of the remaining stake in October 2021.
As of the end of last year, Prasac Microfinance ranked second in profit and fourth in assets among all financial institutions in Cambodia, including commercial banks.
With the license upgrade and final approval of the integration, KB will expand Prasac Microfinance's infrastructure, which was previously only available for retail banking, to corporate customers, including corporate banking, and gradually expand its business scope.
"We will continue to strengthen our sales capabilities by utilizing our nationwide sales network of 180 branches and over 5,000 loan salespeople," said Cho Nam-hoon, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Business at KB Financial Group.
