The riel is the currency of Cambodia. There have been two distinct riel, the first issued between 1953 and May 1975. Between 1975 and 1980, the country had no monetary system. A second currency, also named "riel", has been issued since 20 March 1980. Since the late 1990s, the riel has had an unofficial fixed exchange rate of 4,100:1 with United States dollar, Cambodia's second de facto currency for commercial transactions.

The National Bank of Cambodia is the central bank of Cambodia. The bank's duties include, inter alia, the management of monetary and exchange policies, the regulation of banks and financial institutions, and the control of the national currency, the riel. The bank was established in 1954, after Cambodia obtained its independence from France, taking over from the Institut d'Émission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viet-nam, a short-lived French quasi-central bank that had itself replaced the Banque de l'Indochine two years earlier.