Cambodian people used banks less than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region last year in percentage terms of using financial services, recent data from the World Bank showed.
The report, released this month, also pointed to high growth in the percentage of borrowers, which insiders said was concentrated in Cambodia’s mircofinance sector.
Informal lending, a threat to the financial stability of many low-income earners, was high above the regional average.
Myanmar and Timor-Leste were excluded from the report because no data was available on the countries.
Only 4 per cent of Cambodians had an account at a formal financial institution in 2011, compared with 27 per cent in Lao PDR and 21 per cent in Vietnam.
The regional average was 55 per cent, taking into account highly banked nations. Japanese account holders composed 96 per cent of the country’s population over the age of 15. The number of Cambodians saving at a financial institution was 1 per cent, and the report showed no credit card usage in the country.
About 3 per cent used debit cards.
