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President & Group Managing Director's Report

"In 2025, ACLEDA BANK continued to strengthen its position as a secure, resilient, and innovative financial institution, with digital transformation remaining a key driver of progress. The launch of real-time, data-driven products within the ACLEDA Super App marked an important milestone, enhancing customer experience and expanding access to financial services. Through connections with public and private systems, we are building an inclusive financial ecosystem while advancing our Phygital strategy by integrating physical and digital channels across people, processes, and technology. This approach ensures consistent service quality, operational efficiency, and customer-centric innovation across all touchpoints, supporting sustainable growth in an increasingly connected environment. Looking ahead, we will build on this momentum by expanding our regional presence, improving financial access in underserved markets, and investing strategically in technology, cybersecurity, talent, and digital innovation. These efforts will enable us to deliver secure, efficient, and inclusive banking services while remaining a responsible, forward-looking institution."

Performance in 2025

Competitive Environment

In 2025, the accelerated adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies continued to reshape Cambodia's financial landscape, significantly elevating customer expectations for faster, simpler, and more secure banking experiences. Competition among Banks and Financial Institutions (BFIs) intensified as market players expanded mobile-first offerings, scaled merchant acquisition and KHQR acceptance, and competed through multi-channel marketing, pricing strategies, promotional campaigns, loyalty and rewards programs, and ecosystem partnerships. This environment increased pressure on institutions to deliver highly reliable, seamless, and highly available digital services.

Against this backdrop, ACLEDA BANK PLC. continued to advance its transformation toward a digital-first and self-service operating model, while reinforcing a Synergy–Phygital approach that combines the strength of people and digital capabilities. The Bank positioned its branch network as hybrid service hubs, integrating human expertise with digital tools to promote and deliver leading financial products and services. This approach enhanced operational efficiency, strengthened security, and elevated overall customer convenience. Mobile banking remained the dominant channel for everyday payments and business transactions, further intensifying competition around UX/UI quality, transaction speed, system uptime, and customer support responsiveness.

ACLEDA Super App ("The Bank in your hand") remained a core platform in this competitive landscape, offering a broad range of financial and non-financial services through a user-friendly and continuously enhanced interface. By the end of December 2025, public disclosures indicated more than 5.64 million active users and over 0.80 million business partners, reflecting sustained growth in customer engagement, transaction activity, and ecosystem participation. The scale of the Super App strengthened the Bank’s ability to seamlessly connect digital self-service with personalized human support across touchpoints.

Customers are able to access services anytime and anywhere with internet connectivity, including KHQR/QR payments nationwide and increasingly seamless cross-border QR payment interoperability. Cambodia’s Bakong-linked QR corridors have been successfully launched with Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, while Phase 1 connectivity with Japan was officially introduced in July 2025. The Cambodia–Singapore cross-border QR linkage was launched in November 2025, with additional corridors—including India and ongoing processing and coordination with the Philippines and Malaysia—under development to further strengthen the regional payment ecosystem. These developments reinforce ACLEDA BANK’s phygital strategy by enabling customers and merchants to transact digitally across borders, supported by trusted banking infrastructure and service excellence.

Operational Highlights in 2025

• Total loans outstanding at the end of 2025 were US$7,634.45 million, with US$1,340.79 million (or 17.56%) allocated to the agriculture sector. In 2024, lending to agriculture totalled US$1,468.10 million. By the end of December 2025, there were 558,758 active customers for the Group’s small business loans.
• Non-performing loans (NPLs) remained high but manageable at 7.02% (CIFRS (Consolidated)) due to uneven economic activities, sectoral stress and elevated private debt levels.
• Total deposits reached US$9,369.27 million across approximately 6.47 million accounts.
• The Group reported a profit for the period attributable to the owner of the Bank at US$199.86 million.
• The Bank consistently made efforts to minimize costs and risks to retain income and maximize profit.
• Fintech products were integrated into the Bank's electronic banking infrastructure, offering customers a range of choices to manage their financial resources.

Financial Services and SME Businesses

Lending in the "Small" business category grew by 8.71% or US$279.33 million. The "Personal & Others" category grew by 34.19% or US$211.73 million. “Housing Loans” balance was US$145.70 million. The total amount of loans outstanding was US$7,635.62 million as of the end of 2025.

On the funding side, the Group's total deposit balance reached US$9,369.27 million as at year-end 2025, representing a robust growth of 12.09% (equivalent to US$1,010.21 million), supported by approximately 6,470,471 deposit accounts. Retail deposits remained the primary engine of growth, driven by a steady increase in first-time depositors, including employees receiving salaries through the Bank’s Payroll Service and rural customers accessing financial services via the E-Wallet on the ACLEDA Super App. The continued expansion of fintech-enabled products and services further strengthened deposit mobilization and advanced the Group’s commitment to financial inclusion.

To effectively serve retail business customers and small-medium enterprises nationwide, the Group sustained a diversified and extensive delivery network, comprising 319 branches and 222 self-service banking locations, supported by 1,651 ATMs and 6,506 POS terminals. During the year, the Group issued 1.62 million debit cards and 61,629 credit cards. In parallel, digital adoption continued to accelerate, with ACLEDA Super App achieving significant growth to over 5.64 million registered users by the end of 2025, reinforcing the Group’s position as a leading digital financial services provider in the market.

Medium and Corporate Businesses

In this product category in 2025, cash management services increased substantially through our arrangement and partnership with the public sector, particularly the Social Security Fund (SSF), government payroll direct deposits, registration and license fee payment, and vehicle stamp tax collection. The demands for these services payment via ACLEDA Super App were particularly strong in 2025 with a number of organizations that signed up, including entities in the public sector, local and international companies, and other organizations, thereby providing excellent opportunities for cross-selling of other products and services.

In addition, the best services offered by the nationwide networks of the Bank have highly attracted and engaged medium and corporate business entities to consistently appreciate, remain loyal to, and prioritize the Bank as the first effective coordinator for financial management and sources of their business operations and settlement. These multiple services have also had a significant positive impact on the Bank’s local currency cash flow and have enabled the Bank to fund, strengthen, and expand its local Khmer Riel currency loan portfolios. Meanwhile, the medium and corporate loans outstanding increased by 0.14% compared to 2024 and accounted for 32.72% of the total loans outstanding.

Furthermore, the Bank and its subsidiaries continued to collaborate with their long–term, experienced, and strategic partners. These entities assist our mutual, common customers to manage their financial resources effectively and efficiently. Together with this, these partnerships also significantly contributed to the Bank’s long-term funding and also provided a useful source of off-balance sheet revenue, while enhancing the international expertise and experience of the Bank’s management and staffs.

Treasury Local and International

The Bank remains a primary provider of Foreign Exchange (FX) services to a wide range of financial sectors and the public at large. Its foreign exchange operations produced stable and consistent results, significantly contributing to the Bank’s non-interest income. Adhering to its risk management policy, the Bank refrains from engaging in speculative trading and concentrates solely on supporting customers’ authentic business transactions. Market risk is mitigated through managing open positions within prudent ratios, adhering to internal and regulatory limits. This disciplined strategy has ensured steady income and growth, strengthened customer relationships, and fostered lasting partnerships.

Strong customers deposit inflows, supported by long-term borrowings (subordinated bonds issuance), strengthened the Bank's balance sheet throughout the year. This robust funding foundation base supported continued loan portfolio growth and provided the financial flexibility to advance the Bank’s expanding operations and strategic initiatives.

By providing loans denominated in KHR and taking part in government programs to fortify Cambodia’s financial market, the Bank has been an outspoken supporter of the KHR. As of 2025, over 21.37% of the Bank’s loan portfolio offered in KHR, exceeding the regulatory requirement of 10%. In addition, the Bank has invested in government bonds amounting to KHR308b (≈US$77m) and is a major supporter of government-led efforts. The Bank is demonstrating its dedication to the nation’s economic development and financial sector modernization through these endeavors.

The Bank broadened its funding sources by strengthening ties with strategic partners globally, particularly in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Additionally, by the end of 2025, it has also enhanced relationships with other financial institutions, leveraging an extensive international correspondent network of 230 correspondent banks residing in 39 countries. This robust network underscores the Bank’s global connectivity and reliability.

The Bank continues to comply with internal risk policies, regulatory requirements, and lenders’ prudent covenants, ensuring stability and trust within its operations.

Strategic Priorities for 2026

The BANK you can trust, the BANK for the people!

To deliver the Bank’s strategic direction in line with the Business Plan and the Bank’s statements, we implemented and monitored priority action plans through a flexible delivery approach, applying agile methodology where appropriate.

During 2025, the Bank advanced its Mobile-First agenda by strengthening the ACLEDA Super App roadmap, enhancing AI-enabled capabilities, improving UI/UX, and expanding digital payments and ecosystem services to increase customer self-service.

We accelerated loan digitization through the Loan Origination System (LOS), reducing manual processing while strengthening credit scoring, monitoring, and management reporting.

In parallel, key banking processes were redesigned and migrated to digital channels through increased automation and end-to-end digital loan journeys—enabling customers to complete the full process digitally from initiation to disbursement. This was supported by improved data integration, enhanced reconciliation, and secure partner connectivity via APIs.

HR digitalization continued through reskilling and upskilling programs, modernization of HR systems, productivity initiatives, and strengthened ethics and governance.

The Bank reinforced funding and liquidity by mobilizing deposits and diversifying funding sources, supported by treasury enhancements within regulatory requirements.

Brand and community initiatives focused on improving customer experience, enhancing service-point visibility, expanding collaboration, and continuing CSR activities to deepen public trust.

Finally, we strengthened IT resilience, data capability, open banking readiness, and cybersecurity controls and awareness, while continuing to deepen partnerships, support subsidiaries, and advance ESG and sustainability initiatives.

The Challenges for 2026

In 2026, the Bank is expected to face a more demanding operating environment driven primarily by border tensions and localized security risks, continued adjustment in the real-estate sector, and tariff and trade pressures. These factors may weaken confidence and mobility in certain areas, disrupt livelihoods and cross-border activity, and increase pressure on households, informal businesses, and SMEs—affecting transaction patterns, remittance flows, credit demand quality, and repayment capacity.

From a macroeconomic perspective, Cambodia’s real GDP growth is projected to moderate from 4.8% in 2025 to 4.0% in 2026 (IMF) and from 4.8% in 2025 to 4.3% in 2026 (World Bank).

In this context, the Bank will place stronger emphasis on Digital Loan products to enhance speed, accessibility, and operating efficiency while strengthening control and monitoring. Priority will be given to expanding end-to-end digital lending journeys—including salary-based loans, BNPL, savings-backed loans, and merchant and SME digital loans—supported by digital and semi-digital loan platforms, including the Loan Origination System (LOS). These capabilities will enable faster decision-making, reduced manual processing, stronger credit scoring, and improved portfolio visibility.

At the same time, the Bank must balance growth with prudence by reinforcing credit discipline, strengthening early-warning systems and portfolio monitoring, closely managing real-estate-linked exposures and collateral valuation, and maintaining strong liquidity and funding resilience. Successful execution will require disciplined cross-functional synergy coordination, strong data governance, and continued focus on cybersecurity, fraud prevention, operational resilience, and regulatory compliance, alongside effective change management to ensure confident adoption by both staff and customers.

I sincerely thank our customers, business partners, shareholders, and employees for their trust, continued support, and dedication.

Dr. In Channy
President & Group Managing Director of ACLEDA Bank Plc.
March 19, 2026.