The  National  Bank  of  Cambodia officially  launched  last  Friday  a  test  of  its  central  shared  switch  (CSS)  mechanism,  which connects account records of three of the Kingdom’s leading financial institutions,  allowing them to  operate  ATM  and  point-of-sale   (POS)  terminals   in  tandem.  The  participating   financial institutions  include  Acleda  Bank,  Sathapana  Bank  and  Prasac  Microfinance,  which  together have a combined network of nearly 500 ATMs across the Kingdom with over 900,000 debit and credit   cards   issued.   Meanwhile,   all   commercial   banks   and   microfinance   deposit-taking institutions will be required to have system in place  by January  of 2018,  the NBC said in its release.  According  to  the  announcement,   the  CSS  allows  for  various  types  of  transactions including  the  payment  of goods  and  services,  cash  withdrawal,  inter-bank  fund  transfer  and balance inquiry. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)