Bakong Payment Cambodia's National Ewallet issued by National Bank of Cambodia បាគង

Recently I got a chance to talk with my Cambodia counterparts on their national ewallet called Bakong បាគង. This ewallet is issued by their central bank (National Bank of Cambodia) as the country's national ewallet. 




It's quite similar to most ewallets also uses QR code but this is a national ewallet endorsed by the government and central bank. 


At the moment there's not much details into the inner workings of the project except that it's running on hyperledger blockchain (DLT) and developed by a Japanese IT company called Soramitsu. This is evident in the Android playstore url. The blockchain is based on Iroha ledger. Most likely the blockchain is used to record the transactions inbound and outbound to the member banks to make it very hard for tampering and fraud.





Recently Maybank announced it signed an MOU with National Bank of Cambodia to enable cross border payment. This most likely would be a form of allowing Maybank's MAE ewallet users to transfer money to the Bakong ewallet system. Maybank, Public Bank and RHB has got big presence in Cambodia which may open up more possibilities for more MOUs.

What I know is Public Bank Cambodia (Campubank) is not yet on the Bakong system yet but it is a matter of time before they are connected to the Bakong system.



Just a thought whether our government in Malaysia is launching eTunai system as our national ewallet system. I believe Bank Negara subsidiary Paynet also is planning something like a national ewallet system. There is a 3rd party company called Primekeeper trying to lobby similar wallet in Malaysia.


Update 20210514
Latest update is Campubank a subsidiary of Public Bank Berhad in Cambodia is now on the Bakong System.



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