ACLEDA, pronounced “A-C-Leda”, is short for the “Association of Cambodian Local Economic Development Agencies.” It hearkens back to the bank’s roots as a development NGO, set up in the immediate aftermath of Cambodia’s civil war in 1993.

Even after becoming a full-fledged commercial bank in 2003, ACLEDA, one of just two Cambodian companies on Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500, had to deal with trust issues in the developing Southeast Asian economy.

In Channy, who has run ACLEDA since 1993, remembers customers would stop by the bank every morning just to check on things, even if they had as little as $20 in the bank’s accounts.

“I asked them: Why do you come to the office every morning?” Channy said in an interview with Fortune. “They say: Your office is smaller than my home. I want to make sure you exist!” he laughed.

In 2007, ACLEDA invested in a proper headquarters, housed in a five-story office building in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh. Channy credits that investment to unlocking “exponential” growth in deposits and loans.

Source: FORTUNE