Chairman
Claude Falgon is the founder and was, until June 2017, the CEO of the Advans Group. Currently he is a Member of the Board of Advans SA SICAR and chairs several affiliates of the Advans Group. He has served as a director since August 2001 and as chairman of the Board of Directors since February 2005. He is a member of the Audit Committee and of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, USA, a post-doctorate in management science from ICG Paris, France, and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from INA Paris, France.
Board Member
Estelle was appointed to the board in August 2017 and joined Amret as executive director in January 2018, where she is currently leading the implementation of the strategic plan. She was previously the deputy chief operations officer for the Advans Group where she was driving key digital and rural finance activities in the group, as head of financial services. Estelle started her career in rural development and economics in 2000, before jumping in microfinance in 2003 as a field officer for a SME finance downscaling program in Romania, before joining Advans International, formerly Horus Development Finance, as a senior consultant in 2004. Between various assignments for the Advans group headquarters supporting the development of greenfield microfinance institutions, she was chief operations officer for Advans Ghana Savings and Loans, and then in 2013 took up the role of deputy chief executive officer for Advans Bank Tanzania (now Letshego Bank [T]). Estelle holds a master’s degree in agricultural engineering, specializing in agricultural economics, from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, France.
Board Member
Steven was appointed to the Board of Directors in August 2017 and is the chairman of the Risk Oversight Committee. He is an experienced international senior finance executive, and currently holds the position of CEO of the Advans Group. His career in financial services spans 25 years, including 20 years in microfinance. Through various positions in global financial institutions and consulting firms, Steven has gained solid practical knowledge of both retail banking and microfinance operations from different perspectives: strategy, governance, operations, business development, organization, internal control, and risk management. He is chairman of the board of several Advans affiliates. He holds a master’s degree in general management, majoring in finance, from HEC School of Management, the leading graduate school of management in France.
Board Member
Antoin was appointed to the Board of Directors as an independent member in November 2020. He is chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Risk Oversight Committee and Nomination and Remuneration Committee. He studied business economics at the University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Antoin has extensive experience in international banking, having worked in Australia, Vietnam, the US and the Netherlands in various managerial roles with a focus on structured finance, risk, portfolio management and treasury. From 2003 to 2006 he was the Managing Director of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., responsible for the institution’s European credit portfolio and a member of its principal credit committee. Since 2007 he has been active as an entrepreneur and has been applying his experience in consultancy and non-executive roles after selling his consultancy business. He has served on boards of various microfinance institutions across Asia.
Board Member
Saran was appointed to the Board of Directors in July 2021. He is the Co-founder & CEO of AmruRice Co Ltd- one of the largest rice millers and exporters in Cambodia, working with over 100 cooperatives and over 10,000 farmers, more than 60% of whom are women. The company has grown its rice exports to over 450,000 tons from 2011 to 2020. Saran has attended multiple local and international programs and has won many awards, including the Country SME Innovation Award; Agrow Award; Young Entrepreneur Award” by Asean Business Council in Singapore in 2018; ASEAN Leadership Awarded by Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) in 2019 in Shanghai; the “Young Takeda Entrepreneur Award” by the Takeda Foundation, Tokyo University in 2016; and the “Gold Medal on Entrepreneurship Award” by McKinsey & Company in 2006. Saran holds a BBA and Master’s Degree of Business Administration from the National University of Management, Cambodia and is currently a PhD candidate in Economic Science at the Royal Academy of Cambodia.
Board Member
Oluwatobi was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors as in May 2022. She is a member of the Audit Committee and of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. She is a Fintech and Digital Transformation expert who guides companies to increase efficiency, revenue growth and sustained profitability by identifying optimal business models and focused attention on risk management. She is the creator and pioneer lead of the Verve Payment Card, the largest domestic card scheme in Africa, issued over 52 million cards and accepted in over 185 countries across the globe. Her over 20 years of experience in Fintech, Banking and Finance industry spans across Card Payment, financial inclusion, mobile money, micro finance, retail banking, electronic banking having worked in various senior roles specializing in digital transformation, business strategy and business model innovation. She is an alumna of Harvard Business School USA, holds a master’s degree in strategic marketing from Cranfield University UK and Bachelor of science degree in economics at the Ogun state University, Nigeria.
The Audit Committee is established and chaired by an independent non-executive board member. Its mission is to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of internal audit tasks and the internal control system, and the adequacy of reporting and decision tools.
The committee meets at least four times a year, and otherwise as required. The duties of the committee are to review internal and external audit functions, monitor the integrity of financial statements, ensure compliance with internal policies, laws and regulations, and review risk management and internal controls in order to provide recommendations for improvement.
The IAD is independent of all Amret’s operations and reports directly to the Audit Committee. Its vision is to be recognized as a professional internal audit body that provides value-added recommendations to management and trusted consultation to the Board. Its mission is to provide professional and independent appraisals of Amret’s activities in order to add value by improving operational efficiency and effectiveness, monitoring internal control systems, and ensuring compliance with policies, laws and regulations.
Chief Executive Officer
Dinn was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. His career at Amret started in 1996 as supervisor of provincial office. He transferred to the Product Development Unit two years later and progressed through the company to become operations manager in 1999 and then chief operations officer from 2008-2011. He was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive Officer in February 2011 before appointed as CEO. Dinn holds an MBA from the Utara University of Malaysia (UUM), and a bachelor’s degree from the Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia.
Chief Operation Officer
Sopha was appointed as Chief Operations Officer in 2022. She is leading Business Operations and Legal &Compliance Department-taking key responsibility in designing, implementing, and monitoring sound (limited operational risk) and efficient business processes with the objectives to maximize productivity, staff, and Client experience. She is also currently served as Interim Chief Finance Officer. She started her career as Provincial Supervisor to Chief Accountant and then to Head of Finance, before changing career directions in 2012 to the Human Resources division. She was promoted to Chief Human Resources Officer in 2016. She has a great mix of experiences in various leadership and management roles with the company for more than 24 years and is passionate about empowering people to realize their potential and achieve their goals. She holds an MBA from Charles Sturt University, Australia, and a BA in Entrepreneurship from the Faculty of Economics and Science, Phnom Penh.
Chief Sales Officer
Youhay was appointed to his current role as Chief Sale Officer in 2018. His journey at Amret start in 2000. He started working for Amret as Assistant Provincial Supervisor Kandal province. At the end of 2001, he was promoted to Provincial Supervisor of Kampot province. In early 2010, he was promoted to Head of Operations and in June 2015, he was appointed Head of Sales Credit. He graduated from Ukraine with a Master Degree of Science in Economics in 1997.
Chief Human Resources Officer
Sinat was appointed as Chief Human Resources Officer in July 2021. Before joining Amret, Sinat served as the Country HR Director at Coca-Cola Cambodia. Sinat has more than 20 years’ experience as a human resources professional, working in several multinational companies across various sectors. He has held many positions in developing and implementing HR strategies, directions, policies, and procedures, as well as focusing on maximizing human resource utilization in achieving growth and competitiveness. Sinat holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration Management and two Bachelor’s Degrees: one in English for Business Communication from Norton University and one in Accounting from the National University of Management.
Chief Internal Audit Officer
Meath was promoted to be Chief of Internal Audit Officer in January 2019. He has worked at Amret for more than 17 years. He first joined Amret as Junior Internal Auditor in 2003 and pursued various roles such as Senior Internal Auditor (2004), Financial Audit Unit Manager (2007), Deputy Head of Internal Audit (2008), and Head of Internal Audit (2011). Meath holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the National University of Management (NUM) and an MBA from Build Bright University (BBU).
Chief Information Officer
Sajjad joined Amret in June 2019 and has been driving the digital transformation program with solutions focused on growth, productivity, innovation, governance, and cyber security. Sajjad has extensive international experience in the financial services sector having spent 17 years with GE Capital in various leadership roles. Prior to joining Amret, he worked as an executive consultant with several private and public sector organizations on business growth and transformation initiatives. Sajjad holds a BSc in Business Management, MSc in Computer Science, Executive MBA and in the process of completing his part time Doctorate.
Acting Chief Commercial Officer
Ratha was appointed as Acting Chief Commercial in July 2023. He began his banking career with Amret as Credit Officer in 2005 and went through various roles from sales, training, and product. In 2017, he was promoted to head of credit product, and head of commercial product in 2019. Ratha holds a master’s degree in finance and banking from BBU. Ratha experiences with various key functions including product development, commercial strategy development, segmentation value proposition, campaign to support product performance, product pricing management, lending guideline, and credit methodology development.
Chief Risk Officer
Vichet was appointed Chief Risk Officer in April 2021. He has been at Amret for 15 years, moving across functions including Economic Analyst, Project Management, Product development, Sales and then Risk Management. He holds an MBA from Kun Shan University, Taiwan and a BA in Economics from the Royal University of Law and Economics.
Chief Financial officer
Winston was appointed to his current role as Chief Finance Officer in January 2024, supervising Finance, Treasury, Strategic Planning and Administration departments under his leadership. Prior to joining Amret, he held similar leadership roles as CFO in Prince Bank Plc., a commercial bank in Cambodia (2019 to 2023) and as CFO in Prudential Vietnam Finance Co. Ltd., a micro-finance company in Vietnam (2015 to 2016). He began his career in Malaysia as an auditor with KPMG before progressing his career into banking, where he has accumulated over 20 years of experiences in Retail Banking, SME, and Commercial Banking. His extensive mix of banking experiences in area of finance, treasury, business planning, customer analytics, partnership development, campaign, and product marketing. Winston holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from The National University of Malaysia (UKM).
Despite a relatively robust economic growth in 2023 at 5.3%, supported by a progressive recovery in tourism, infrastructure and service sectors, and significant resilience in agriculture, Cambodia’s financial sector saw a deterioration in asset quality. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted on the need for private sector debt to be closely monitored. It further stated that efforts to strengthen the supervisory framework should continue. This context impacted Amret as the rest of the sector in 2023. Yet we are proud of the progress we have made to support our customers throughout the year.
Indeed, Amret remained fully committed toward its purpose of driving business in a responsible manner and creating values for customers and their communities. This was made possible by the dedication and involvement of staff and all key stakeholders. While the overall Non-Performing Loan (NPL) had risen over the past two years in the sector, with a PAR30 reaching 5.4% and 6.75% respectively in the banking and microfinance sector, Amret has limited the deterioration of its portfolio quality with a PAR30 at 3% at the end of 2023. Thanks to this achievement, and with cautious management of operational expenses, Amret performance showed resilience with a Return on Average Equity (ROE) at 9.4%.
2023 marked the execution of the second year of “Amret Forward 2022-2024”. Amret’s strategy, guided and approved by the Board. This strategy includes a clear intent to achieve the vision of growing sustainably, becoming more efficient, effective, resilient and remaining a leading financial institution with impact.
Throughout the year, we realized and recognized Management’s effort to carry out priority actions by focusing on simplifying business operations, leveraging technology to further innovate and improving customers’ experiences. This effort will be pursued in 2024.
Client protection has always been Amret Board of Directors and Management’s priority and is integrated into business operations. Respecting Client Protection Principles is even more critical in difficult times for Clients. Led by this purpose, Amret reviewed its client complaint handling policy and procedure to not only support the protection to customers in a responsible manner but also ensure effective and efficient implementation by all teams.
Cambodia’s financial sector is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, with the adoption of digital financial services on the rise. The National Bank of Cambodia has been instrumental in encouraging the use of digital financial services to reach the unbanked and underbanked population, notably by its initiative on innovative digital solutions like KHQR and Bakong, which is a greatly successful digital payment platform.
Cambodia’s mobile penetration rates are among the highest globally. The total of 22.16 million cellular mobile connections were active in Cambodia equally to 131.5% of the total population1.
In recent years, Amret has embarked on a remarkable investment and journey to leverage its digital technology. This reflects not only in Amret’s commitment to embracing innovation to serve customers more efficiently and effectively-but also demonstrate its aspirations for economic growth, financial inclusion and furthermore to contribute to the long-term government strategy on “Digital Economy and Society Policy Framework 2021-2035”. The framework aims to build a vibrant digital economy and society and to accelerate new economic growth.
In our pursuit of excellence, Amret has placed its strong emphasis on building and developing local talents. This is clearly reflected in its strategic objective on staffing. Amret talents, for them to be prepared for future career opportunities, have benefited from an Advans group program, in partnership with EDHEC business school in Paris. We believe in the potential of staff talent, excellence and innovation to drive business growth. We keep on sourcing for talents and advancing their knowledge and skills. We will continue to provide meaningful work and opportunities for training and professional growth as well as ensure talent and succession planning. As we expect 2024 will be another year of uncertainty. We believe Amret is well positioned to take on new opportunities to grow responsibly and sustainably. Amret has been, and is still, strongly committed to contributing to the development of the Cambodian economy.
On behalf of the Board, we would like to extend our appreciation and thank to the shareholders, partners, and regulatory bodies, especially the National Bank of Cambodia for their strategic direction, invaluable guidance, advise, and support. We also extend appreciation and gratitude to every staff member for their dedication, commitment and collective effort in serving our customers responsibly amidst the challenging environment for the past few years. Mos of all, we are grateful to our customers for maintaining their trust, confidence, and support. Amret will continue to work towards fulfilling their needs and expectations.
Moving forward, Amret, as a financial institution with social impact, will remain committed to creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
Claude FALGON
Chairman, Amret