JB Financial's Subsidiary Phnom Penh Commercial Bank Reports 20.7 Billion KRW in Last Year's Performance... Largest Among Korean Banks

JB Financial Group's subsidiary Phnom Penh Commercial Bank.

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Kim] Phnom Penh Commercial Bank (PPCBank), a subsidiary of JB Financial Group, has achieved its highest-ever performance.

JB Financial announced on the 18th that Phnom Penh Commercial Bank recorded a net profit of 20.7 billion KRW last year. This is the highest performance since its acquisition in 2016 and the highest among Korean banks operating in Cambodia.

It increased by 40.5% compared to the previous year (14.7 billion KRW), and despite the competition intensifying with about 10 local commercial banks added in the last three years, it was the only bank to surpass a net profit of 20 billion KRW, maintaining its position as the industry leader among Korean banks, JB Financial explained.

Total assets also rose by 21.8% year-on-year to 1.0722 trillion KRW, marking the first time a Korean bank in Cambodia surpassed 1 trillion KRW in assets.

JB Financial cited a thorough localization strategy and optimized digital financial services as the driving forces behind this achievement. Last year, the bank succeeded in independently developing Cambodia’s first core banking IT system, ‘Apsara,’ possessing the technological capability to computerize the entire process from loan consultation to post-management. Foreign exchange operations such as trade finance, which were previously managed manually, have also been computerized, and marketing capabilities have been strengthened by utilizing a customer information database.

Additionally, increasing demand deposit and low-interest deposit attraction instead of high-interest fixed deposits helped reduce funding costs, contributing to profit growth.

Furthermore, considering Cambodia’s characteristics where foreigners are actively engaged in economic activities, the bank operates ‘foreigners-only counters’ at major branches and provides differentiated private banker (PB) services to high-net-worth individuals, which JB Financial said was also effective.

Shin Chang-moo, President of Phnom Penh Commercial Bank, stated, “Despite the difficult situation where retail finance growth has slowed due to strengthened capital regulations and excessive competition, it is very encouraging that we achieved a solid net profit of 20.7 billion KRW by expanding the customer network and strengthening digital services, contributing to the group’s performance.”