Profile

AMK’s products have been designed to serve its clients’ financial needs throughout their lives as their lifestyles and income sources change. As a result, AMK offers Loan, Savings, Money Transfer​​, Microinsurance and Payment products.

The typical AMK client joins AMK as a Village Bank client who accesses small amounts of credit through AMK’s Group Guaranteed Loan products.  Depending on the clients' income stream, clients can choose between Installment and End of Term Loans. Good clients who return to AMK are rewarded with higher loan ceilings and reduced interest rates for subsequent loans. Successful clients can also avail themselves of flexible Credit Line products and Emergency Loans if the need arises.

1. End of Term - Village Bank, a group guaranteed loan without any  physical collateral requirement.
2. Installment - Village Bank, a group guaranteed loan without any physical collateral requirement.
3. Credit Line - Village Bank, a group guaranteed loan without any physical collateral requirement.
4. Easy Loan - Village Bank, a group guaranteed loan without any physical collateral requirement.

5. Business Expansion Loan, requires physical collateral and guarantors.
6. Seasonal Loan, targets farmers involved in small scale agriculture, crop growing, and animal raising.
7. Easy Loan, for city dwellers who have been residents in the area at least 6 months. One guarantor required but no physical collateral necessary.
8. Emergency Loan, restricted to clients who have completed at least six months with AMK and are still active at the time of application.

AMK Microfinance Institution is one of the leading microfinance institutions in Cambodia and has been granted a deposit license from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). AMK offers four diversified deposit products, which have been widely accepted by customers. These are the Easy Savings Account, Lucky Account, Fixed Deposit, and Future Account. As an added benefit, if you sign up for an Easy Savings Account or a Lucky Account, you will receive a free ATM card.

1. Easy Saving Account  (Purple ATM Card)  
2. Lucky Account (Gold ATM Card)  
3. Fixed Deposit  
4. Future Account  
5. Corporate Saving Account  
6. Smart Kid Account

Through research and surveys, we gain valuable insight from our clients into their needs and changing market conditions. AMK's in-house Research Department actively works towards providing relevant information for AMK to assess, manage, and report on its Social Performance.

In order to make Social Performance Management (SPM) a driving force at AMK, our Research Department collects information from clients, non-clients, and secondary sources, and analyzes this data in a series of reports created annually (the Research Intelligence Reports). These reports cover both social and market issues and seek to answer the following key questions:

1.How poor are the clients we are reaching?
2.How many clients leave AMK, when, and why?
3.Are AMK clients satisfied with the products we offer?
4.Are there other products that the clients demand?
5.Is AMK having any transformational impact on them?

AMK client households generate income through farm activities, non-farm activities, and other sources of in-flows.

Farm activities refer to the activities dealing with crops, livestock, and Common Property Resources (CPR).
Non-farm activities include income from casual labor, salaried labor, manufacturing, and services.
Other sources of inflows include remittances (domestic and international), sales, rental, and income from loans.

Nearly all rural households in Cambodia undertake at least one farm activity. 95% undertake at least one non-farm activity (see graph 1 below) and 55% also benefit from other inflow sources (excluding receiving loans).

AMK’s products have been designed to serve its client’s' financial needs as their lifestyles and income sources change over time. The typical AMK customer joins AMK as a Village Bank client who accesses small amounts of credit through AMK’s Group Guaranteed Loan products. Depending on their income stream, clients can choose between Installment and End of Term Loans. Good clients who return to AMK are rewarded with higher loan ceilings on subsequent loans. Successful clients can also utilize flexible Credit Line products and Emergency Loans if the need arises.

Regular commercial lending has traditionally been constrained in rural Cambodia by high costs of operations, the inability to verify and enforce property rights, and low levels of economic activity. As a result, the vast majority of the rural population up until recently has had almost no access to formal financial services.

In 1992, after the signing of the country's peace accords which marked the end of decades of bitter conflict, Cambodia emerged from economic isolation. Large-scale international aid and relief operations followed. The first microfinance experiments were credit-oriented, designed to kick-start new business activity. Microcredit was initially provided by NGOs to fill gaps left by the non-existent banking sector. Without a working banking system, organizations such as GRET, World Relief, ACLEDA, and CRS initially ran microcredit projects by physically handling cash transfers themselves.

A Road Less Travelled in Serving Microfinance Clients: The AMK Story The Universal Standards for Social Performance Management Implementation Guide provides financial service providers with practical guidance on how to improve strategies, governance, operations, and employee treatment. It is based on a set of industry standards for social performance management (SPM), called the SPTF Universal Standards for SPM.

In addition to “how-to” guidance, the newly published Guide features practical experiences from hundreds of organizations with strong SPM practices. Among these, Cambodian institution AMK features prominently and is also the subject of an upcoming book by Anton Simanowitz and Katherine Knotts. CGAP's Antonique Koning spoke with the authors.

AMK received the Global Microfinance Highest Customer Orientation Achievement Awards for 2011. The award was accepted by AMK Board Member Marcus Fedder at the Global Microfinance Investment Summit held in Geneva July 5-8, 2011. The Highest Customer Orientation award category recognizes organizations with the highest level of responsibility towards its customers and a high success rate of both customer acquisition and retention.