Acleda Bank Lao Ltd.

ACLEDA Bank Lao started its operations in Lao PDR in July 2008 and offers a range of financial services and products to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Laos. The market for financial services in Laos is underdeveloped and institutions such as ACLEDA are crucial to providing micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises opportunities to grow and develop.

ACLEDAs ability to offer loans to their customers is limited by funding, and since 2014 Norfund has supported ACLEDAs lending operation by providing loans in local currency. The funding provided by Norfund will increase ACLEDAs lending abilities to the micro-, small-, and medium enterprises, and support financial inclusion in Lao PDR.

The market for financial services in Laos is underdeveloped and institutions such as the Bank are crucial to providing micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) opportunities to grow and develop. 

Norfund supported the bank’s lending operation first time in 2014 by providing a local currency loan. The transaction was at that time one of the first long-term local currency loans provided to a financial institution in Laos.

Acleda Bank is today the only bank that targets micro and small businesses. Its loan portfolio has been growing by an average of 16% per year during the past 3 years. However, funding is regarded as a bottleneck to the bank’s growth.

In 2018, Norfund therefore committed an additional local currency loan which the bank shall use to on-lend to its customers. The loan will assist the bank in meeting increasing demand, especially in the growing micro- and SME-segment.