August 3: NRB has tightened locker facility provided by banks and financial institutions (BFIs) through Unified Directive 2073. Unified Directive is issued by NRB in a bid to regulate transactions and activities of ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ listed BFIs. “NRB has tightened the locker facility provided by BFIs to their customers due to increasing trend of misuse of lockers and safe deposit valve,” said a NRB source. He added “Discovery of ammunitions along with other contrabands has prompted NRB to make such provision.”

NRB issues Unified Directive at the start of every FY in order to implement mechanisms formulated in monetary policy.  The Unified Directive for the FY 2073/74 is stricter than the previous directives. Unified Directive occasionally contains various matters that are not included in monetary policy due to transparency and security issue. “Thus, though the provision related with locker facility was not included in monetary policy, it has been circulated through Unified Directive,” said the source.

According to the new mechanism, BFIs must install CCTV camera and alarm system before starting the locker facility.  The BFIs have to disseminate the information to government security department and NRB if required. The directive has also made provision for locker insurance based on their sizes. BFIs are required to keep updated information of the customers utilising locker facility.

Moreover, NRB has directed the BFIs to categorise their locker users under four different categories including customers with high risk, medium risk, low risk and politically exposed person (PEP). Similarly, NRB has asked the BFIs to keep a close eye on the bank lockers provided to PEPs.

According to the sources, discovery of ammunitions at the bank locker of CPN (Maoist Center) lawmaker and former state Finance Minister Lharkyal lama of Nepal Investment Bank has incited the related sector of taking precaution from such person.