When There Was No Money

A strong banking system supports economic growth by attracting unproductive capital and injecting it into the economy, increasing the productivity of the country’s capital base and leveraging it by attracting outside capital. The largest retail branch bank network is built in one of the most formidable environments in the world. This book takes the journey from Year Zero to the present, tracing the trials and triumphs of a group of people as they built an employment generation project for demobilized soldiers in 1992 into the largest commercial retail bank branch network in Cambodia by 2003. Along the way they influenced the nation’s financial system and stimulated a banking industry that serves poor and low-income people. The book offers a tantalizing analysis of events, organizational dynamics and a business model that incorporates profit and purpose. It examines the transition from the microfinance field that is jealously guarded by donors to a breakthrough response of commercial banking for the people.