CB Bank is one of Myanmar's oldest and largest commercial banks. It became the first bank in Myanmar to issue ATM cards and credit cards.[2] The bank, led by U Khin Mg Aye (Chairman)[3] and U Kyaw Lynn (CEO)[4] has over 200 branches across the country.[1]
The CB Bank was established on 21 August 1992 with the permission of the Central Bank of Myanmar. It started as a small bank with 33 employees and has around 7000 in 2016. In 2004, it became a public company.[5] The CB Bank's head office is located in the Botahtaung township area of Yangon.
CB Bank heaquarter at Yangon
In May 2013, CB Bank became the first bank in Myanmar to issue a debit card[6] and permitted the first card-related financial transaction in Myanmar.[7] In September 2012, Mastercard signed an agreement with CB Bank to license cards in the country and this enabled local merchants and ATMs to accept the payment cards.[8][9][10][11] In 2013, CB Bank switched to T24[12] from Temenos as its core banking system to enhance bank-wide connectivity with the branches in the country.[13][14] The bank named the ATM service as EASI Banking. The bank has the largest network of ATM and Foreign Exchange Counters in Myanmar.[15][16][17][18]
After signing the contract with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the Trade Finance Program, CB Bank received $12 million for its Trade financing program in October 2015.[19] It allowed the bank to issue Letter of Credit agreement, which allowed exporters to ship products before receiving payment under CB Bank’s trade finance lines, guaranteed by ADB.[20]
CB Bank also started offering mobile banking services to the personnel and corporate clients which include basic banking functions, remote access banking services and mobile airtime top-ups are available through the app.[21] It launched Easi Mobile Banking Agent for areas in Myanmar where there is no branch coverage.[22] Mobile agents will receive 30 percent of normal money transfer and 50 percent for other services.[23] CB Bank partnered with Myanmar Post Office in 2017 to further expand its mobile agent services at post offices.[24]
From 2016, CB Bank and other several banks started offering loans for SMEs in collaboration with Japanese Government and state-owned Myanmar Insurance.[25] Additionally, CB Bank was chosen by German KfW bank to provide 4.45 EUR million worth of loans for SMEs in Myanmar based on market study and due diligence offer SME or loans with or without collateral.[26]
In January 2017, CB Bank signed an agreement with Diebold Nixdorf for systems, software and services to expand its cardless cash withdrawal services and P2P offerings to self-service banking in Myanmar.[27] CB bank, already hosting one of the largest ATM networks in Myanmar, has planned to double the number of terminals to expend its self-service network.[28]
In August 2017, Grab, an online cab aggregator partnered with CB Bank to offer banking services available to its drivers.[29] The drivers have benefitted from the program obtaining access to ATM cards and bank accounts. In September 2017, it announced partnership with telecom operator Ooredoo to launch, M-Pitesan, a mobile wallet which will offer nationwide money transfer and bill payments services.[30][31][32]
In September 2017, CB bank launched the contactless payment system in collaboration with Visa and Mastercard the payment service providers. The service help users to complete their payments through contactless POS machines for Visa and Mastercard.[33]
In January 2018, CB Bank opened the first small and medium enterprise (SME) center in Mandalay. Through (SME) centers, CB Bank aims to help SMEs apply for necessary loans. Plans of SME loans include SME-Credit Guarantee Insurance Loan (SME CGI Loan), SME Longterm Investment Loan Powered by JICA, SME Business Expansion Loan Powered by KfW, and SME Term Loan.[34]
In April 2018, CB Bank signed an agreement with KfW Development Bank (KfW) to extend loans with $13.22 million to finance small and medium-sized enterprises in Myanmar.[35]
In May 2019, CB Bank and Telenor Myanmar signed a partnership with Visa to launch the CB-Telenor co-branded Visa credit card which aims to enhance financial services in Myanmar and expand benefits for Telenor Star Platinum users.[36][37]
In October 2019, CB Bank announced that it will launch its innovation lab on the APIX platform making it the first bank in the ASEAN region[38] to connect with an open-architecture.[39][40] In May 2020, CB Bank became the first bank in Myanmar to open smart branch at the Kantharyar Center. Similar to self-checkouts, customers can open their own bank accounts and get debit/prepaid cards immediately with minimal interactions with bank staffs.[41]
Partnerships
In September 2019, CB Bank partnered with England based professional football club, Manchester United to become their official financial services partner for Myanmar.[42] It launched the Manchester United branded prepaid cards, debit cards and credit cards in Myanmar.[43][44]
In March 2020, to support digital and cashless payments in Myanmar, CB Bank becomes the first bank in Myanmar to support MSME portal in partnership with MasterCard and the Myanmar government.[45] In September 2020, it partnered with Infobip and Viber to launch Myanmar’s first banking service on the Viber community platform. This helped bank to replace traditional call center agents with virtual personal assistants.[46]
Major awards
2019 Best Service Provider - Trade Finance Myanmar by The Asset[47]
2019 Best Corporate & Investment Bank in Myanmar by Asia Money[48]
2019 Best for Premium Banking Service by Asia Money[48]
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either the front or the back. Many of the new cards now have a chip on them, which allows people to use their card by touch (contactless), or by inserting the card and keying in a PIN as with swiping the magnetic stripe. These are similar to a credit card, but unlike a credit card, the money for the purchase must be in the cardholder's bank account at the time of the purchase and is immediately transferred directly from that account to the merchant's account to pay for the purchase.
Electronic funds transfer at point of sale is an electronic payment system involving electronic funds transfers based on the use of payment cards, such as debit or credit cards, at payment terminals located at points of sale. EFTPOS technology was developed during the 1980s.
Visa Inc. is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards. Visa is one of the world's most valuable companies.
Mastercard Inc. is the second-largest payment-processing corporation worldwide. It offers a range of payment transaction processing and other related-payment services. Its headquarters are in Purchase, New York. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the Mastercard-brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard has been publicly traded since 2006.
President's Choice Financial, commonly shortened to PC Financial, is the financial service brand of the Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw Companies.
Visa Debit is a major brand of debit card issued by Visa in many countries around the world. Numerous banks and financial institutions issue Visa Debit cards to their customers for access to their bank accounts. In many countries the Visa Debit functionality is often incorporated on the same plastic card that allows access to ATM and any domestic networks like EFTPOS or Interac.
Bank of Maldives (BML) is the leading financial institution in Maldives inaugurated on November 11, 1982. They are a full-service bank offering personal, business and corporate financial services to over 300,000 customers. Bank of Maldives has an extensive network of branches, agents, relationship managers and online banking facilities in the Maldives.
Shetab, officially the Interbank Information Transfer Network, is an electronic banking clearance and automated payments system used in Iran. The system was introduced in 2002 with the intention of creating a uniform backbone for the Iranian banking system to handle ATM, EFTPOS and other card-based transactions.
Multibanco is a portuguese interbank network. It is the largest interbank network in Portugal owned and operated by SIBS, that links the ATMs of 27 banks in Portugal, totaling 12,700 machines as of December 2014. The bank members of Multibanco control the SIBS. Multibanco is a fully integrated interbank network. One of the most notable characteristics of Multibanco is the wide range of services that can be utilised through its machines.
HDFC Bank Limited is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest private sector bank by assets and world's fourth largest bank by market capitalisation as of July 2023, following its takeover of parent company HDFC. It is the second largest company by market capitalisation of $172 billion on the Indian stock exchanges. It is also the sixteenth largest employer in India with nearly 1.73 lakh employees.
girocard is an interbank network and debit card service connecting virtually all German ATMs and banks. It is based on standards and agreements developed by the German Banking Industry Committee.
National Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Foreign Economic Activity' Joint Stock Company, same as the National Bank of Uzbekistan (NBU) is universal commercial bank of Uzbekistan. It is the largest bank of Uzbekistan in the volume of assets combining the functions of project financing, universal commercial, investment and savings banks.
The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India. It was created by RBI for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
Debit Mastercard is a brand of debit cards provided by Mastercard. They use the same systems as standard Mastercard credit cards but they do not use a line of credit to the customer, instead relying on funds that the customer has in their bank account.
Easypaisa is a Pakistani mobile wallet, mobile payments and branchless banking services provider. It was founded in 2009 by Telenor Pakistan. It also provides digital payment services through a QR code in partnership with Masterpass and it is the only GSMA mobile money certified service in Pakistan.
JS Bank Limited (JSBL) (جے ایس بینک لمیٹڈ) is a Pakistani commercial bank headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. The bank is a prominent majority-owned subsidiary of JS Group. The bank was established in April 2007 as a result of the merger of two mega corporates, Jahangir Siddiqui Investment Bank Limited and American Express Bank. In 2021, the bank had a total revenue of Rs. 18.07 billion (US$63 million) and closed the year with total assets of Rs. 812.8 billion (US$2.8 billion). JS Bank Limited currently operates branches across Pakistan as well as an international branch in Manama, Bahrain.
Asia Green Development Bank is a public commercial bank in Burma (Myanmar) providing banking services and products. It was one of 4 private banks to commence operations in August 2010 when the government issued four new banking licences and the first new financial institutions in the country since the establishment of Innwa Bank in 1997. Its headquarters are situated in Yangon, Myanmar. The bank began trading on the Yangon Stock Exchange when it opened in 2016. The bank was founded by Tay Za and was a subsidiary of parent company Htoo Group, whose 15% stake was sold to new shareholders. In 2016 Infosys provided AGD Bank with Finacle front and backend solutions for online banking systems.
Myanma Apex Bank is a private commercial bank in Myanmar.
The City Bank Limited is a Bangladeshi private commercial bank headquartered in Dhaka. The bank provides products and services in retail banking, corporate finance, SME Banking, women banking, digital banking, asset management, equity brokerage, and security. It has 133 branches. The bank is a licensee to issue Visa and MasterCard Debit and Credit Cards and it is the sole licensee of American Express Cards in Bangladesh.
Wave Money is a mobile financial services provider in Myanmar which was established in 2016. Its headquarters is located in Yangon, Myanmar.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
