B2B Asia News sat down with Henk G. Mulder, CEO of Sathapana Bank, to discuss the bank's recent recognition by the International Finance Awards, and to get his outlook on Cambodia's banking and finance industry for the year ahead.
B2B Asia News: What does winning the Most Innovative Mobile Banking Application – Cambodia 2025 award from the International Finance Awards mean for Sathapana Bank?
Henk Mulder: “It recognises all our efforts, and all the investments we make in digital banking, especially in our app. We have done a lot of development on this in the last two years, especially in 2025. And it's very important that it's being recognised internationally.”
B2B Asia News: From the customer side, what has the response been to the newly revamped banking application? Have you observed an uptick in customer activity or in the size of the user base?
Henk Mulder: “Yeah, we see a really good trend in growth in the number of clients using the app, as well as in the number of transactions on a daily basis. To be frank with you, in my office you will always find me with two screens where I follow the number of transactions on our app, on a daily basis, because for us it's the most important for development, and also for the future in banking.”
B2B Asia News: Aside from the launch of the newly revamped app, what other major milestones or achievements did Sathapana Bank make in 2025? Can you share your reflections on what the year was like for the bank overall?
Henk Mulder: "We have been able to further grow our loan portfolio, I think, in a healthy way. You see, there's a lot of cleanup that has to be done, still, from old non-performing loans (NPLs), and this we can successfully do because we have continuously good results. I think that's quite an important element in banking also for the next years to come, for the whole banking sector, not just Sathapana Bank.
“I would say we have had very good interactions with our clients. We held different events with our clients as well. For example, we held special real estate events where we offered our collateral to our clients and other parties at very competitive prices. There's a good opportunity to buy real estate nowadays in the market. We organised a lot of these activities as well.”
B2B Asia News: Looking forward, what is your general outlook on the banking sector in Cambodia?
Henk Mulder: “Don't underestimate the negative influence of the border issue with Thailand. That's something that has had a huge impact on the country, on the people, and consequently, on the economy as well, including the banking sector. And this is not over yet. I foresee that in 2026, this will be a further negative influence, I would say.
"Also for loan demand, we can see that it's not really going up in the market, because a consequence of the border issue is that investments are being postponed. People wait a bit and see, and that's not good for an economy. But, of course, we are positive about the future of Cambodia, where the young people take a lot of initiatives, and in that they develop a lot of excellent activities, so, I'm very hopeful for the future.”