Amret MFI advertisement posted on the wall of the home of a Tampuan Indigenous borrower in Pa Chon Thom village, Ratanakiri, Cambodia, reading: “Amret helps you buy agricultural equipment without having your own money” [left]; “Amret is always ready to help you and your family” [right].
The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) rejected its ombudsman’s findings about harm related to investments in Cambodia’s microfinance sector, failing a critical test of accountability, Human Rights Watch said today. In its response, published on June 24, 2026, the IFC refuted the ombudsman’s determination that it had violated its own environmental and social policies.
“The IFC Board’s decision to reject the findings of its own ombudsman is a blow for accountability in Cambodia’s microfinance sector and for millions of indebted microfinance borrowers in Cambodia,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The IFC should stop deflecting its own responsibilities and instead get to work providing a remedy for past harm and preventing future harm.”
The Board of Directors of the IFC, the World Bank’s private sector investment arm, issued a statement announcing that, in response to a 2022 complaint filed on behalf of 18 Cambodian microfinance borrowers, the IFC would enact a plan to support complainants to use existing complaint procedures in the country. The statement says, “In approving the Plan, the Board recognized that there has been no policy noncompliance under IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability.”
The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the organization’s internal watchdog, on June 24, had published its 142-page investigation into the allegations made in the 2022 complaint. The report details extensive harm directly related to several areas of IFC non-compliance and specifically finds that the “IFC did not comply w
