Banking and financial services
Major banks
Agricultural sector and SMEs to receive private bank loans
The Central Bank of Myanmar will make it compulsory for local private banks to grant a minimum percentage of their loans to the agricultural sector and the small and medium-sized enterprises sector, Central Bank director general U Win Thaw told the Myanmar Times. During a meeting held by ...
Schools promote financial literacy
In an effort to promote financial literacy to students in primary and secondary schools, the National Bank of Cambodia and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on February 28 officially launched the “Let’s Talk Money” comic book. The comic book will be additional reading for ...
Tax exemption on interest income questioned
The Ministry of Planning and Finance has issued a statement on February 19 that income tax will not be levied on interest from bank savings and deposits. The statement means that tax on interest from bank deposits will be exempted in the coming 2017-18 fiscal ...
SMEs in crisis due to failure to get bank loans
Small and middle-sized enterprises are facing a crisis due to difficulties in sourcing financing from banks, said the founder of City Mart Group of Companies, Daw Win Win Tint, “Not getting a bank loan means a catastrophe for the SMEs,” she said after SMEs Authoritative ...
Economists concerned about increase in non-performing loans
Economists have expressed concern over non-performing loans that banks have given to the private sector. Bankers said NPLs are currently higher than the rate of 3 percent set by the Bank of the Lao PDR, which could have negative impacts on financial and economic stability. ...
BoT governor: Thailand assets a safe haven
Foreign investors are parking money in Thai assets in the short run because they see the baht as a safe haven backed by solid foreign reserves amid global market fluctuation, the central bank chief says. But the Bank of Thailand has instruments up its sleeve ...
BOT embraces big data, analytics for micro-financial activities
The Bank of Thailand is investing in big data and data analytics in an effort to deal with complicated transactions arising from consumers’ micro-financial activities in the digital age. In the digital age, technology has rapidly changed and it is affecting how businesses are run, posing ...
Local home loans survive a slowdown
Commercial banks saw strong growth in housing loans last year despite a slowdown in the real estate sector, which could have a knock-on effect and threaten the growth of the country’s services. According to a Ministry of Economy and Finance report released late last month, ...
US tech firm opens in Myanmar
Diebold Nixdorf, a leading US tech firm with a presence in more than 130 countries, announced the opening of its office in Myanmar’s commercial hub. Neil Emerson, the firm’s senior vice president and managing director for Asia Pacific, said that its customers’ positive feedback and satisfaction ...
Myanmar lures visa, other foreign credit card issuers
Overseas credit card companies are looking to Myanmar as the country shifts from cash to card payments. U.S.-based Visa teamed up with Myanmar’s Co-operative Bank (CB Bank) on Jan. 17 to issue credit cards with limits of between 4 million kyat and 5 million kyat($2,946 and ...
