Government to Assure At Least One Bank in All Local Level

April 12: The government will provide accessibility of at least one bank branch in all local level. The government has directed Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to expand banking access to all 744 local bodies formulated as per new structure. On April 11, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister gave direction to open bank branches in local levels. Therefore, NRB and National Planning Commission are instantly forwarding the tasks regarding this. According to Financial Sector Management Division, Ministry of Finance, the necessary tasks and modalities  required to expand the banking network has also been prepared.

However, stakeholders labeled the decision as ‘Government Stunt’ as the government has not been able to restart the bank branches closed during Maoist’s insurgency. If one considers the NRB statistics, a total of 318 branches of Agriculture Development, Rastriya Banijya Bank and Nepal Bank  banks had been closed during the insurgency. Among which only 151branches have been resumed so far.

Meanwhile, World Bank is providing foreign loan of Rs 10.7 billion for the stability of Nepal’s financial sector. The representative of World Bank and the government of Nepal have signed on an agreement paper on this regard. World Bank expects that the aid will be utilised for enhancing financial sector development, restructuring and strengthening the financial system, strengthening the legal and regulatory framework and enhancing governance and transparency of the banking sector.