Myanmar's banks at a cash and credit crossroad

Myanmar’s banks at a cash and credit crossroad

The investment case for Myanmar is well known: the resources, the population and the convenient neighbours. What about the reality of banking on the ground? Banks may be growing fast, but they face challenges ranging from an absence of mortgages to changing rules and a national obsession with cash.


IN ADDITION
Clients bank on a cultural transformation

It is a busy day in the Kamayut branch of KBZ Bank in Yangon. Beneath a photograph of the bank’s chairman receiving an award for being the country’s biggest taxpayer, a woman in a green facemask is handing over several bricks of banknotes to a customer.

Cash is everywhere, stacked in piles and spilling from rice sacks. There are bales of cash, bound in thin white plastic string, and there are at least three times as many cash-counting machines as there are computers (with an extra counting machine on the customer side, so clients can re-count the counting).

Myanmar’s banks at a cash and credit crossroad

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Myanmar’s banks at a cash and credit crossroad

Thanks for your interest in Euromoney!To unlock this article:

Regulators should be upfront with taxpayers – and admit all deposits are guaranteed

Transformative trends in wealth management

Bank of Singapore pioneers ESG tools for private banking in Asia

The Danish Compromise tests Europe’s appetite for regulatory easing

Thanks for your interest in Euromoney!
To unlock this article: