Cambodia’s central financial institution governor, Chea Serey, has warned that if all depositors try and withdraw their cash from banks on the similar time, monetary establishments might face severe money shortages.
In a press release issued on March 16, 2026, Chea Serey urged depositors to work with their respective banks to seek out options concerning their deposits to be able to defend the pursuits of all prospects.
Chea Serey defined that when many depositors rush to withdraw funds concurrently, banks might wrestle to supply money instantly as a result of a lot of the cash has already been lent out to debtors.
“If depositors demand their cash from banks on the similar time, banks will even should demand reimbursement from all debtors on the similar time,” Chea Serey mentioned.
The assertion got here as a whole bunch of shoppers who had deposited cash with APD Financial institution gathered on the financial institution’s department within the Boeung Kak space on Monday to withdraw their funds.
The frenzy adopted the financial institution’s announcement that it was suspending some providers for system upkeep and had requested the Nationwide Financial institution of Cambodia to take authorized measures to handle the state of affairs.
Clients raised a variety of issues. One Chinese language businessperson recognized as Yulong Yew mentioned his firm had deposited 5 million {dollars} in APD Financial institution however was prevented from getting into the financial institution when making an attempt to withdraw the funds.
One other buyer mentioned they went to the financial institution to withdraw cash after studying that transfers had been briefly suspended. The shopper mentioned financial institution workers initially claimed the suspension would final three days, however later mentioned the non permanent halt would prolong to 5 days.
Simply after midnight on March 16, APD Financial institution issued a service replace informing prospects that every one banking providers could be briefly suspended from 12:01 am till 9:00 am the identical day.
From 9:01 am on March 16 till 11:59 pm on March 20, the financial institution mentioned some providers would steadily resume, though others would stay unavailable.
Providers that stay accessible embrace checking account balances, opening fixed-term financial savings accounts, and transferring cash between private accounts.
Nevertheless, outgoing transfers via the Bakong KHQR system are restricted to 3 hundred {dollars} per buyer.
A number of providers stay briefly suspended, together with sure features within the APD Cellular and iBanking platforms, in addition to VTM providers, Visa playing cards, UPI, and CSS.
Earlier, on March 14, APD Financial institution launched a separate assertion saying that in current days false data had circulated on-line claiming the financial institution was concerned in web fraud and that its banking license was vulnerable to being revoked.
The financial institution mentioned these experiences had critically broken its repute. It added that the matter had already been reported to related authorities and burdened that it complies strictly with all laws and tips issued by the Nationwide Financial institution of Cambodia.
The Cambodia Day by day mentioned it had not but been capable of contact APD Financial institution chief govt Chua Thiam Yew for remark as of the time of publication.
