The joint venture leasing company, called Mobility Finance Cambodia, will carry out commercial taxi leasing and other business activities as the first step. After the company is set up, it will acquire a lease license from the Central Bank of Cambodia by this summer and then start its business, according to the joint statement.
Tokyo, Japan-based SBI Group is a fintech company, and Renet Japan Group specializes in the recycling and reuse of consumer products.
Cambodia has achieved rapid economic growth in recent years, and its GDP growth rate has remained above 7%. Cambodia’s financial market, as well as its leasing market, is expected to grow further, along with economic development, according to the statement. However, due to reasons such as inadequate availability of specialized agencies that provide credit information, there has been no established environment in which leasing services can be offered.
The joint venture leasing company will simplify the process of performing credit checks on lessees and carry out the business of leasing automobiles, motorcycles, agricultural equipment, construction machines, and more for commercial use. Mobility Finance Cambodia will create an IoT-based framework, in which GPS-based tracking is done and past due payments are demanded by remotely disabling engines, for example, according to the statement.
“By utilizing the Internet of Things, like GPS and a remote start device, we can monitor the activities of clients efficiently and with lower costs to expand the leasing services to the automobile, motorbike, agricultural machinery, and equipment sectors,” Eiichiro So, chairman of SBI Royal Securities, said in a published report.
Fintech solutions would take out the human resource element that bogs down leasing firms that have to physically check on clients who are not making repayments, So said. “Utilizing fintech solutions, we can create a low-cost operator that provides lower fees and interest rates to our customers.”
Separately, SBI Group recently invested in blockchain consortium group R3. The consortium received a total of $107 million, with SBI Group becoming R3’s largest outside shareholder, according to the company. R3 represents the largest consortium of global financial institutions working on developing commercial applications for the distributed ledger technology that’s at the heart of blockchain technology. Other leading investors include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Intel and Temasek, R3 said in a statement.
