Monday, October 6, 2008

Nepal bank Ltd comes of age, signs accord to provide debit cards

Nepali financial institutions are upgrading themselves to keep up with international financial tools and technology.
Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL), the oldest and first commercial bank of Nepal, has joined hands with Smart Choice Technologies (SCT) to upgrade itself technologically and provide services to the customers.
Cut-throat competition and decreasing market share have compelled every financial institutions, especially commercial banks, to upgrade themselves technologically to cater to the needs of customers.
After People's Bank Nepal got licence from Nepal Rastra Bank on September 25, a total of 26 commercial banks are now in operation, crowding the small economy like Nepal and compelling themselves to bring new products and provide more services to the customers.
Dr Binod Atreya, the coordinator of NBL management team and Rabindra Malla, managing director of SCT signed an agreement to expand the services to the NBL customers, according to the SCT.
NBL customers can now use the SCT network to withdraw money from over 165 ATMs and 1,000 Point of Sales (PoS) of SCT throughout the country.
"It can be used in 1000 PoS in India also," SCT said, adding that NBL is the 39th member of the SCT network.Before SCT came into existence in 2004, there were only 22,000 debit cards in circulation but today there are 3,64,780 cards in circulation. Out of a total 12,000 debit card users — in a day, almost half at 6,500 are the SCT cards users only.SCT is also planning to launch bill payment through the SCT cards in near future. It is also thinking of installation of PoS in major revenue generating points like Birgunj and Biratnagar. The Finance Ministry has given approval and its going to be launched any time in future," said Malla.

NBL at a glance
Nepal Bank Ltd (November 15, 1937)
Chairman: Bharat Bahadur Karki
Coordinator: Dr Binod Atreya (NRB)
Paid up capital: Rs 380 million
Core capital: N/A
Net Profit: Rs 528.7 million
NPA: 8.05 per cent
Networth: negative
Earning Per Share: N/A
Price earning Ratio (P/E): N/A
Branches: 99
ATMs: Joined with SCT

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