General research for information only — not legal, tax, or investment advice. Cambodian law and markets change; figures are indicative, so verify current detail with a qualified local professional before you act.
The banking side of a Cambodian property purchase is more straightforward than many buyers expect, but it has its own quirks — a dollarised system, a distinctive domestic payment network, and KYC rules that have tightened considerably in recent years. This is a practical orientation to how banking works for a foreign buyer, and how it intersects with the questions about reporting and transparency we cover elsewhere in this section. Citations are marked [S-NNN]; the source list is at the end.
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A dollarised system
Cambodia runs on the US dollar in practice, even though the official currency is the riel — and this is not a loose impression but the central bank’s own finding: the National Bank of Cambodia’s research puts foreign currency (overwhelmingly dollars) at roughly 95 percent of both deposits and loans across the banking sector, and foreign-currency deposits at around 96 percent of total deposits, making Cambodia one of the most dollarised economies anywhere [S-050]. Property is priced and transacted in dollars, bank accounts are commonly held in dollars, and large transactions are dollar-denominated. For a foreign buyer this is a genuine convenience: it removes most of the currency risk that complicates frontier-market purchases elsewhere, since you are buying, holding, and ultimately selling in the same currency you likely think in.
One trend to watch: the NBC has been nudging the riel forward for years — riel in circulation and riel deposits have grown steadily alongside the dollar [S-050], and banks have been phasing out small-denomination dollar notes. Nothing about that changes the dollar’s dominance in property today, but a buyer with a decade-long horizon should not assume the dollarised convenience is constitutionally permanent.
Opening an account as a foreigner
The larger Cambodian banks — names a buyer will encounter include ACLEDA (230+ branches), Canadia, and ABA, the current expat default — do open accounts for foreigners, and the process is usually manageable. Expect to provide a valid passport with a long-stay visa, typically a work permit or employment letter and a lease, and increasingly an explanation of the source of your funds; opening an account as a tourist is no longer realistically possible [S-054]. Minimums vary meaningfully — ACLEDA asks a $1,000 opening deposit, Canadia around $200 [S-054] — so it is worth comparing before you commit.
That source-of-funds scrutiny is the most important change in recent years. As Cambodia strengthened its anti-money-laundering regime, the FATF removed it from the grey list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in February 2023, after roughly four years on it [S-053] — and the bank-level rigour about documentation is the visible residue of that effort. Treat this as a positive: a bank that asks proper questions is a sign of a maturing system, and clean documentation of where your money came from protects you later when you move funds home.
The Bakong payment network
One distinctive feature of Cambodian banking is Bakong, the payment system operated by the National Bank of Cambodia — developed by Soramitsu on the Hyperledger Iroha distributed ledger, piloted from mid-2019 and fully launched in 2020 [S-051]. Sometimes described as a quasi-central-bank-digital-currency (analysts argue it is closer to tokenised commercial-bank deposits [S-052]), Bakong links banks and payment providers into a shared real-time settlement network — interbank transfers clear in seconds rather than the twice-daily batches of the old system [S-051] — and underpins the country’s QR-code payment culture. The scale is striking: in 2024, Bakong processed roughly $148.9 billion in payments, around 330 percent of Cambodia’s GDP, across some 30 million wallets and 4.5 million QR merchants [S-052]. For a property buyer it is mostly background infrastructure, but it is worth knowing that Cambodia’s domestic payments are more modern than its frontier status might suggest, and that this is state-operated rather than a private innovation.
Moving money in and out
The practical friction in Cambodian banking is rarely opening the account — it is the international transfers at either end.
Bringing money in is usually straightforward, subject to your sending bank’s and Cambodia’s documentation requirements. The point to plan for is taking proceeds out later, especially after a sale. Two things make that smoother:
- A clean money trail. Keep documentation of the original inbound transfer, the purchase, any rental income, and the eventual sale. When proceeds arrive back in your home account, your home bank or tax authority may ask where they came from, and a complete record turns a potential problem into a formality.
- Awareness of de-risking. Banks in developing markets can face reduced correspondent-banking access, which occasionally makes international transfers slower or more expensive. Using a well-established bank reduces this risk.
What is and is not reported
This is where banking meets the CRS question. Because Cambodia is not a CRS-participating jurisdiction, there is no automatic, annual exchange of your Cambodian account information to your home tax authority. But — as we stress throughout this section — that does not change your own duty.
If you are tax-resident in a country that taxes worldwide income, you must declare income connected to your Cambodian accounts and property on your home tax return, whether or not Cambodia reports anything. The absence of automatic exchange shifts the responsibility onto you to self-declare; it does not remove the obligation. Relying on non-reporting to avoid declaring taxable income is evasion.
The sensible posture is to bank in Cambodia openly and properly, keep clean records, and declare what you are required to declare at home. That is both lawful and, practically, the way to avoid trouble when money eventually moves back across a border.
The takeaway
Banking in Cambodia is workable and, thanks to dollarisation, less currency-fraught than many frontier markets. Expect real KYC and source-of-funds checks, keep meticulous documentation from the first transfer onward, and use one of the larger, well-run banks. Understand Bakong as a sign of a surprisingly modern payments layer. And treat the reporting question correctly: bank transparently, record everything, and handle your home-country tax obligations with qualified advice. Get the documentation habit right at the start and the banking side of a Cambodian purchase becomes one of its simpler parts.
Sources
- [S-050] National Bank of Cambodia — Dollarization in Cambodia (research paper, NBC/JICA survey) — foreign currency ~95% of deposits and loans across the banking sector; FCD ~96% of total deposits; riel circulation and deposits growing alongside.
- [S-051] LF Decentralized Trust — Soramitsu / Bakong case study — Bakong built by Soramitsu on Hyperledger Iroha for the NBC; 2019 pilot and 2020 launch; real-time interbank settlement vs twice-daily batches.
- [S-052] Ledger Insights — Cambodia’s Bakong DLT payment volumes reach 3x GDP — NBC 2024 annual report: $148.9B volume (~330% of GDP), ~30M wallets, 4.5M merchants; tokenised-deposit framing.
- [S-053] Open Development Cambodia — Cambodia removed from the FATF’s grey list — removal from the FATF grey list, February 2023.
- [S-054] Move to Cambodia — Banking in Cambodia — account-opening documentation (long-stay visa, employment letter, lease); no tourist accounts; ACLEDA/Canadia/ABA specifics and minimums.