Fintech & payments regulation in Cambodia (2026)
Fintech and digital payments in Cambodia: licensing regime.
Cambodia has an in-force, NBC-administered licensing regime for digital payments. The 2017 Prakas on Payment Transactions Service Institutions sets out license classes (Payment Service Providers, E-Money Issuers, Third-Party Processors) with minimum capital, KYC, and prudential conditions, while Bakong—the NBC's blockchain-based instant-payment backbone launched in 2020—anchors retail and cross-border QR payments (KHQR with Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, China). There is no dedicated open-banking or BNPL regime; those areas remain governed by general banking/PSP rules.
Legal framework
National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) under the Law on Banking and Financial Institutions, the Prakas on Management of Payment Transactions Service Institutions (14 June 2017), and subsequent Prakas/circulars on Third-Party Processors and KYC/transaction limits; NBC also operates the Bakong national instant-payment system.
Key points: digital payments & fintech in Cambodia
Sole regulator: NBC
The National Bank of Cambodia licenses and supervises Payment Service Institutions (PSIs), e-money issuers, third-party processors, banks, and microfinance institutions. As of December 2024 NBC supervised 30 PSPs and 4 third-party processors alongside the banking sector.
Core licensing instrument (2017 Prakas)
The Prakas on Management of Payment Transactions Service Institutions (14 June 2017) sets out the licensing procedure, permitted scope (deposit/withdrawal into payment accounts, money transfer, payment transactions), six-year renewable license, minimum capital of KHR 8 billion (~USD 2 million) with 5% deposited at NBC.
Third-Party Processors regime
The NBC Prakas on Third-Party Processors (in force from 25 August 2010) allows licensed TPPs to provide money remittance, clearing/settlement, and order routing on behalf of banks; outsourcing to a TPP requires NBC prior approval.
Bakong instant-payment system
NBC launched Bakong in October 2020 as a blockchain-based national retail payment system, often described as a quasi-CBDC. It underpins KHQR (universal QR launched in 2022) and operates 24/7 with KYC-tiered daily limits (e.g., KHR 200 million / USD 50,000 for fully-verified users per the March 2021 circular).
Cross-border QR interoperability
NBC has linked Bakong/KHQR with Thailand (Phase II live), Vietnam (bilateral launch 3 December 2023), Laos (ACLEDA-led link from August 2023), and UnionPay International (December 2023), enabling QR payments in local currencies across ASEAN partners.
No dedicated open-banking or BNPL regime
Cambodia has not enacted a dedicated open-banking/API framework or a specific BNPL law; such activities, where conducted, fall under general PSP, banking, microfinance, or consumer-credit rules administered by NBC. Crypto-related activity is governed by a separate Prakas on Digital Asset Businesses (Prakas 093) and the December 2024 Prakas on transactions related to cryptoassets.
Timeline of decisions
- Decision · officialCambodia–Malaysia Cross-Border QR Payment Phase 2 Goes Live
Bank Negara Malaysia and NBC activated the second, reciprocal phase of the KHQR–DuitNow linkage, enabling Malaysians to scan Cambodian merchant QR codes at 4.5 million KHQR touchpoints using local mobile-banking apps. The corridor now operates fully in both directions, marking the deepest bilateral retail-payment integration Cambodia has achieved.
Bank for International Settlements
- DecisionCambodia–Malaysia Cross-Border QR Payment Phase 1 Launched
Following a February 2024 PM-level MOU between NBC and Bank Negara Malaysia, Phase 1 went live: Cambodian users could scan DuitNow QR codes at over 2 million Malaysian merchants via the Bakong or Maybank M2U KH app, paying in Khmer Riel. This was Cambodia's first activated bilateral QR payment corridor outside ASEAN pilot programmes.
Bangkok Post
- DecisionCambodia-Malaysia Cross-Border QR Payment Linkage Activated
Bank Negara Malaysia and the NBC established real-time KHQR-DuitNow interoperability, letting Cambodian app users (including Bakong) scan Malaysian QR codes and vice versa. The linkage is part of ASEAN Regional Payment Connectivity and followed Cambodia's earlier live connections with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Lowyat.NET (reporting Bank Negara Malaysia announcement)
- DecisionNBC and UnionPay International Launch Cross-Border QR Payments
The NBC and UnionPay International activated KHQR acceptance for international UnionPay app users visiting Cambodia, opening the Bakong-anchored payment network to Chinese-market travellers and expanding inbound digital payment corridors ahead of peak tourism season.
Xinhua
- Guidance · officialRoyal Government Releases Financial Technology Development Policy 2023–2028
Deputy Prime Minister Aun Pornmoniroth launched Cambodia's five-year national fintech strategy, comprising 52 measures across four pillars: policy enablers, digital enablers, enabling technologies, and fintech innovation. The policy enshrines financial inclusion, financial stability, and open innovation as co-equal objectives and serves as the master blueprint for all subsequent NBC and FSA rule-making.
Cambodia Financial Services Authority
- LawNBFSA Issues Prakas No. 037 — FinTech Regulatory Sandbox for Non-Banking Sector
The Non-Banking Financial Services Authority created a formal sandbox allowing non-bank fintech firms to test novel products under relaxed regulatory requirements with real customers, for a capped testing period. The Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) issued a companion securities-sector sandbox guideline on 7 August 2023.
Rajah & Tann Asia (citing NBFSA Prakas No. 037)
- Law · officialNBFSA Prakas No. 037: FinTech Regulatory Sandbox for Non-Bank Financial Sector
The Non-Banking Financial Services Authority issued Prakas No. 037, creating a formal sandbox regime for fintech firms in securities, insurance and pensions. Sandbox completion was later made a mandatory prerequisite for obtaining the SERC's digital asset business licence under Prakas 093, making this a critical gatekeeping step in the crypto-licensing pipeline.
Non-Banking Financial Services Authority (NBFSA)
- Guidance · officialCambodia Financial Technology Development Policy 2023-2028 Released
The Digital Economy and Business Committee, chaired by the Minister of Economy and Finance, published the five-year national fintech strategy comprising 52 measures across policy enablers, digital enablers and innovation promotion, targeting financial inclusion, payment-system deepening and ecosystem development. It set the overarching policy architecture for all subsequent sandbox and licensing regulations.
Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodia
- Guidance · officialNBC Launches KHQR — Cambodia's National Unified QR Code Standard
NBC introduced KHQR, an EMVCo-compliant interoperable QR standard allowing consumers to pay any participating bank or PSP through a single merchant QR code, replacing Cambodia's fragmented per-institution QR ecosystem. KHQR subsequently became the technical backbone for all of Cambodia's bilateral cross-border QR linkages.
National Bank of Cambodia – Bakong
- DecisionBakong Blockchain Payment Platform Officially Launched
The NBC launched Bakong, a Hyperledger Iroha-based retail payment platform co-developed with SORAMITSU, enabling instant riel and USD transfers across participating banks and e-wallets via a single app. One of the world's earliest state-backed DLT retail payment rails, Bakong became Cambodia's central interoperability infrastructure and a key de-dollarisation tool, growing to over 8 million users and USD 15 billion in annual transactions by 2024.
SORAMITSU (NBC project partner announcement)
- DecisionNBC Begins Live Pilot of Project Bakong
NBC commenced a live pilot of its blockchain-based national payment system with a limited cohort of partner banks, stress-testing real-time interbank settlement in both KHR and USD; the pilot also served Cambodia's de-dollarisation policy goals by incentivising riel-denominated digital transactions. Growth during the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption and informed the full 2020 launch.
Fintech News Singapore
- Law · officialNBC Prakas on Management of Payment Service Providers
The NBC's landmark Prakas made operating a payment-transaction-account service a licensed activity for the first time, requiring all non-bank payment operators to obtain NBC approval and meet capital and operational requirements. It remains the foundational licensing instrument for Cambodia's entire modern digital-payment sector.
National Bank of Cambodia
- Law · officialNBC Prakas on Third-Party Processors
The NBC issued its first regulation explicitly authorising third-party processors to act on behalf of banks in money remittance, clearing and settlement, subject to prior NBC approval. This was Cambodia's earliest formal acknowledgement of non-bank payment intermediaries and established the conceptual forerunner to the later PSP licensing regime.
National Bank of Cambodia
- Law · officialLaw on Negotiable Instruments and Payment Transactions Promulgated
Cambodia's first dedicated payment-systems statute defined negotiable instruments, authorised electronic payment orders, and granted NBC explicit statutory authority to regulate and oversee the national payment infrastructure. It is the foundational legislation upon which all subsequent NBC payment Prakas are anchored.
Council for the Development of Cambodia
- Law · officialLaw on Negotiable Instruments and Payment Transactions Enacted
Parliament enacted Cambodia's first dedicated payment-systems statute, establishing a legal framework for electronic payments, clearing and settlement and empowering the NBC to regulate payment systems. The law complemented the 1999 banking law and created the statutory basis for all subsequent NBC payment Prakas.
National Bank of Cambodia
- Law · officialLaw on Banking and Financial Institutions, Foundational Statute
Cambodia's parliament enacted the foundational banking law (NS/RKM/1199/13), granting the NBC authority to licence and supervise all banks and financial institutions and to regulate payment methods in national and foreign currency via Prakas. All subsequent digital-payment and fintech licensing authority, including PSP, e-money and digital-asset regimes, traces its legal basis to this law.
National Bank of Cambodia
Sources
- nbc.gov.kh/english/supervision/payment_service.php
- nbc.gov.kh/english/payment_systems/overview_of_payment_systems.php
- nbc.gov.kh/english/legislation/prakas_new.php
- nbc.gov.kh/download_files/legislation/prakas_eng/47.pdf
- bakong.nbc.gov.kh/download/NBC_BAKONG_White_Paper.pdf
- srlaw.asia/index.php/en/component/k2/item/214-prakas-on-management-of-payment-tr
- kh.rajahtannasia.com/media/2855/rtsh_jul2017_3.pdf
- soksiphana.com/resources/alerts/national-bank-of-cambodia-issues-new-guidelines-on-p
- dfdl.com/insights/legal-and-tax-updates/cambodia-new-transaction-amounts-know-
- en.napas.com.vn/vietnam-cambodia-launch-bilateral-cross-border-qr-code-payments-18423
- nbc.gov.kh/download_files/legislation/prakas_eng/20241226_PrakasonCryptoassetact
- khmertimeskh.com/501401146/cambodia-vietnam-launch-cross-border-qr-code-payment/
- phnompenhpost.com/business/acleda-expands-cross-border-qr-payment-laos
- openbankingtracker.com/country/cambodia
- kaohooninternational.com/aseanupdates/577969
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Next topicOrientation, not legal advice: verify against the primary sources linked above. Last verified 28 Jun 2026. Methodology & how to cite · State of Technology Regulation 2026