Cambodia shuts six financial institutions as two banks stay under scrutiny

Why Anco and iBank remain in focus

Anco Specialized Bank remains operational and holds an active central-bank licence, according to official records cited by OCCRP. Its 2021 annual report listed Cambodian senator and businessman Kok An as a 70% shareholder. His current stake remains unclear; OCCRP could not obtain newer ownership documents.

The US Treasury sanctioned Kok An in April 2026, alleging that his properties housed scam centres whose occupants stole money from Americans. OCCRP reported that Kok An rejected the allegations in comments to RFI’s Khmer-language service and said he did “not know about scamming.”

iBank was formerly B.I.C. (Cambodia) Bank and adopted its new name in 2025. Businessman Yim Leak acquired the bank in 2020 and remains its chairman, according to Cambodia’s business registry. Branches carry iBank signs, and the commercial licence has been transferred to that name.

Yim Leak faces money-laundering allegations in Thailand. Money laundering means concealing the criminal origin of funds. Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office froze about $590 million in assets linked to him and an associate earlier in 2026 as part of an ongoing investigation. Separately, the UK Treasury identified B.I.C. Bank as a subsidiary of a Cambodian company sanctioned for alleged involvement in online scams and human trafficking.

In a June statement, Yim Leak’s US law firm, Seiden Law, said he had been falsely associated with scam centres. The firm said he had never been convicted of a crime in any country and was not sanctioned. Neither Yim Leak nor iBank responded to OCCRP’s requests for comment.

The National Bank of Cambodia did not answer OCCRP’s questions about US sanctions, the IMF’s concerns or the roles of Kok An and Yim Leak in the financial sector.

The scale of the sanctions and the next steps sought

Rath Sophoan, chairman of the Association of Banks in Cambodia, cautioned against extending allegations about individual institutions to the whole sector. He estimated that the four US-sanctioned commercial lenders held less than 1% of roughly $100 billion in assets across Cambodia’s 59 commercial banks as of December 2025.

The association includes all licensed lenders but excludes crypto institutions such as Huione Pay. That distinction matters when comparing the four sanctioned commercial banks with the five sanctioned institutions among the six closures.

In an October statement, the central bank accused unnamed actors of spreading false rumours about financial institutions facing collapse, calling it “economic sabotage.” It warned that such claims could undermine trust in the banking system.

The IMF’s September review calls for specific further action: the central bank, supported by other regulators, should identify banks with potential criminal links and address those links. It also urges authorities to close significant gaps in the rules for granting banking licences.