ATMs: Don't Bank on It

Our guide points to the only ATM available in Phnom Penh.
"I hope no-one is planning on using that," she said. "ATMs are such a novelty here that it is frequently broken. The locals tend to gum it up."

Fortunately the news didn't seem to distress anyone in the tour party. No-one urgently needed to swipe a card to replenish funds this early into the trip.

News today in The Australian shows that the ANZ Bank's stake in Cambodia quicken the pace on its ATM installation.

Tim Boreham reports that the ANZ Bank acquiring a 10 per cent stake in Vietnam's Sacombank for $US27 million ($35 million), outbidding a number of other offshore banks.

The purchase follows the (ANZ) bank's acquisition last year of a 55 per cent stake in Cambodia's Royal Bank for $13 million.

ANZ Asia head Elmer Funke Kupper said the ANZ would continue to roll out its Cambodian branches and ATMs "a little more quickly than we thought". The venture is expected to open its first branch in July.

"I think we will start with four or five branches relatively quickly and then grow an extra couple in the first six months," Mr Funke Kupper said.