Chairman's Report

Mr. Chhay Soeun, Chairman of the Board of Directors

On behalf of ACLEDA Bank and the Board of Directors, I am pleased to present the 2022 Annual Report to all interested parties.

Since the early of 2022, the global economic outlook has remained uncertain and raised global recession concerns due to soaring inflation, Federal Reserve's monetary policy tightening, ongoing supply chain disruption, Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, and prolonged Russia-Ukraine War. In addition, the US economy was cooling by ongoing risks from surging inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, and Fed’s tight monetary policy. The European economy has fallen into the recession amid the weaker consumption, worsening energy supply crunch, and tightening monetary conditions. The Chinese economy has faced the strong headwinds due to the strict zero-COVID-19 policy, weakening economic drivers, the latest technology restriction, and the global economic slowdown. The Japanese economy has recovered gradually with improving services sector, but the growth was capped by intensifying the global headwinds.

At the same time, the Cambodian economy shrunk due to the effects of the prolonged Russia-Ukraine War, soaring inflation, and ongoing supply chain disruption. In response to this situation, The Royal Government of Cambodia promulgated many strategies and measures as well as injected the national budget to reduce the inflation rate and keep the economy growing in 2022 and the following years. Furthermore, the government also injected fund to support and restore the micro and small business and economic activities and the poor and vulnerable families affected by the Covid-19. As the results, these mechanisms of the Royal Government effectively reduced the inflation rate and boosted the economic growth in 2022. The Cambodia's economic outlook gained momentum to gradually rebound to the normal faster than expected in 2021 due to reopening economic activities and driven by a robust trade performance.

During 2022, the Bank obtained approval from the National Bank of Cambodia for green bond issuance to qualified investors. The issuance of green bonds takes part and in line with the government's goals in reducing carbon emissions, environmental impacts, and strengthen the securities sector in Cambodia. In addition, the Bank successfully upgraded its core banking system and continued to improve many functions of self-service operations on ACLEDA Mobile, QR code, ATMs, and POSs in line with the customers’ needs and the evolution of digital technology. Meanwhile, the Bank expanded its 125 self-service banking (51 locations in Phnom Penh and 74 locations in provinces) adding to its existing 264 branches. The Bank equipped 1,140 ATMs, 4,358 POS machines, and QR codes based on customers’ requests for transactions of transfers and settlements in markets, shops, hotels, educational institutions, hospitals, travel agencies, gas stations, and other businesses across the country. By the end of December 2022, the Bank has more than 0.2 million business partners and 2.61 million ACLEDA Mobile subscribers.

As of 31 December 2022, total deposits increased by USD 672.97 millions while total loan outstanding grew by USD 993.07 millions, if compared to the year ended 2021. The annual performance 2022 compared to the year 2021, the Group achieved a profit attributable to the shareholders of USD 181.74 millions, an increase of 8.88% equivalent to USD 14.83 million.

Finally, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to all shareholders, customers, employees, the public at large, and especially relevant authorities who always support the contribute to the good performance of the Bank, especially for the year 2022.

Mr. Chhay Soeun
Chairman of the Board of Directors
March 22, 2023