Financial Transparency Corridor Set up between Singapore, Cambodia to Support SMEs
A staff member presents an e-pass for traveling on the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 16, 2022. Photo by Li Zhen/Xinhua
- By Xinhua News Agency
- July 12, 2023 11:32 AM
SINGAPORE -- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a Financial Transparency Corridor (FTC) initiative, MAS announced Tuesday.
The initiative aims to establish supporting digital infrastructures to facilitate trade and cross-border related financial services between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore and Cambodia, said MAS in a media release.
Sopnendu Mohanty, chief FinTech officer of MAS, said that the FTC will support open trade flows for businesses, in particular SMEs, through enhancing financial trust data for financial services between Singapore and Cambodia.
Serey Chea, deputy governor of the NBC, said that the SMEs are the backbones of the Cambodian and Singaporean economies and their abilities to access financing beyond the border will greatly help them grow their operations and better contribute to both countries' economic growth.
Under the FTC, a Singapore financial institution, in assessing financing support for a Singapore SME buyer's cross-border business with a Cambodian SME seller, can utilize the FTC to acquire trusted information from a Cambodian financial institution on the Cambodian SME seller.
Similarly, a Cambodian financial institution supporting a Cambodian seller can obtain trusted information on the Singapore buyer through the FTC.
Such enhanced information flows can help SMEs in Singapore and Cambodia access broader digital trade networks and provide SMEs with greater trade connectivity within ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and other growth regions.
The supporting digital infrastructures under the FTC initiative aim to facilitate information exchange between participating financial institutions in Singapore and Cambodia, to support the provision of cross-border financial services to SMEs.
They also support financial institutions' loan assessments for trade financing and an SME's compliance with anti-money laundering rules to mitigate risks and potential trade disputes.
