What Cambodian riel actually arrives in Cambodia when someone sends Australian dollars, at the live mid-market rate. We explain the process; we never recommend a provider.
| They send (AUD) | You receive at mid-market (KHR) |
|---|---|
| 500 AUD | 1,417,480 KHR |
| 1,000 AUD | 2,834,960 KHR |
| 2,000 AUD | 5,669,920 KHR |
| 5,000 AUD | 14,174,800 KHR |
Mid-market equivalents, not transfer quotes - the sender’s provider deducts its margin and any fees before the money reaches you. STRUCK 11:00 AEST · TUE 13 OCT.
A Southeast Asian country built around the ruins of a lost empire and the pulse of a river that flows backwards. Cambodia's Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious monuments ever built.
Three horizontal bands of blue, red and blue, the red one double-width and bearing a white, three-towered image of Angkor Wat temple. The constitution defines the flag only by a drawing in Annex 1 and assigns the colours no meaning; blue is commonly read as royalty, red as the nation and white as religion, after the national motto 'Nation, Religion, King'.
A continent pretending to be a country - Australia is the only nation that fills an entire continent, with most of its 27 million people clinging to the coast while the red-dirt interior does its own thing.
A blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, a large white seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it, and the five white stars of the Southern Cross at the fly. Six of the big star's points stand for the states and the seventh for the territories; the Southern Cross marks Australia's place in the southern sky.
Cambodia is heavily dollarised in practice: US dollars circulate as everyday money and riel is often used for small change. A recipient may well prefer USD, so the useful question here is which currency the receiving account holds, not what the riel rate is.
The exchange rate is set on the sending side - by the service the sender chooses in Australia - so the most useful thing a receiver can do happens before the transfer: share the live mid-market rate on this page so the sender can judge the margin in their quote. How the money arrives in Cambodia determines any local receiving charges - bank-to-bank transfers can pass through intermediary banks that deduct handling fees.
Sending rather than receiving? The sender’s view of this corridor covers the same rate from the other side. The AUD/KHR converter page handles any amount. Receiving money from overseas explains the process end to end.
Cambodia's retail payments run on a network the central bank operates itself. Bakong is described on its own pages as an all-in-one payment and banking application that sits over a customer's preferred bank account, and customers of every participating institution move money on it by scanning a code, keying in a phone number, or picking a name out of a contact list. Those institutions are not all banks: the central bank's register of the entities it regulates keeps separate lists for commercial banks, specialized banks, microfinance deposit-taking institutions and payment service institutions.
A recipient therefore discloses less than a transfer normally requires. The network's own instructions to a person expecting money are to create a personal code for friends to send to, which is done without sharing any personal information, or to use a phone number as the account. Neither of those is an account number, and neither identifies the institution holding the balance. Paying a merchant on the same network works on the same principle. The central bank published a national code standard for retail payment inside Cambodia and cross-border payment within south-east Asia, and a merchant displays one code that any participating application can pay.
Cash is a separate step from arrival. Any member of the network can be chosen as the point for putting cash in or taking it out, and money can be deposited to an account at any participating institution, so where the balance is held and where the notes are collected need not be the same place.
Sources: Bakong, National Bank of Cambodia · National Bank of Cambodia, KHQR content guideline · National Bank of Cambodia, list of regulated entities
How much Cambodian riel will I receive in Cambodia?
A little less than the mid-market figures above. The service the sender uses in Australia sets the rate and fees; local receiving banks in Cambodia can also apply their own charges depending on how the transfer arrives.
The sender asked for my details - what will they need?
Whatever their transfer service asks for on the receiving side - typically your full legal name and local bank account details in Cambodia. Give the name exactly as your bank records it; mismatches are the most common reason a transfer is delayed.
Why did I receive less than the rate on this page suggests?
The mid-market rate is the midpoint between global buy and sell prices, and no retail provider deals at it. The gap between it and a quote is the provider’s margin, which is usually where most of the cost of a transfer sits. On a bank-to-bank transfer an intermediary bank can also deduct a handling charge in transit.