Cambodia’s banks and financial institutions are still working on rolling out the ability to facilitate cross-institutional payments, which makes it difficult for customers to send or receive money digitally.
In response to this, the NBC, under the guidance director-general Chea Serey, developed the Bakong system, which acts as a backbone payment system for all banking and financial institutions to be connected via one platform.
“I could not have done this without my incredible team at NBC. Without them my ideas would just be ideas. To the girls and women of small developing countries like mine, anything is possible when you set your heart on it regardless of your gender or where you come from,” Serey said on her official Facebook page.
The Bakong payment system infrastructure enables banks and other financial institutions to work together, with an emphasis on safety, efficiency, cost-saving and, more importantly, financial inclusion.
The development of Bakong will contribute to economic development enabled for the digital economy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in accordance with the aims of the Asean digital economy.
Bakong’s development also serves objectives including the enabling of customers making digital transfers between institutions, enhancing the efficiency and security of the payment system, promoting financial inclusion and facilitating the use of riels digitally.
The Bakong payment system uses blockchain technology and was officially launched on Oct 28. The system also empowers the option of using cashless payments to avoid the risk of exposure to COVID-19 inherent in handling traditional paper money.
