Saturday, August 5, 2017

RBB, NIDC merger talks gathers momentum

The merger process between state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) and NIDC Development Bank has once again gathered speed.
The separate merger committees formed by both the banks have agreed to form a joint merger committee led by joint secretary of the Finance Ministry Nirmal Hari Adhikari.
"We have formed a joint merger committee, which will be responsible for finalising all the merger related issues,” said RBB chief executive officer Kiran Shrestha. "The committee has set a target to finalise the merger process by October 17 this year," he said, adding that the long Dashain vacation in between will surely affect the merger process. "We will do our best to meet the deadline."
Earlier, the individual merger committees formed by the two banks has finalised a first draft of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. They have now given the authority to finalise the MoU to the joint merger committee.
The banks have yet not yet discussed into technical issues of the merger like capital ratio and management of employees. "Technical issues are yet to be solved," Shrestha added.
NIDC has already finalised the Due Diligence Audit (DDA) to begin the merger process with RBB. RBB has also already calculated its net worth before starting the merger process.
Expecting merger soon, the Finance Ministry has asked NIDC Development Bank not to extend the agreement of the staffs, who have been hired on contract basis. The ministry has – issuing  a letter on May 7 – also asked NIDC not to appoint any new staff on contract.
A cabinet meeting on January 27 had also urged both the institutions to expedite the merger process. A committee that had been formed under the leadership of former secretary Prithvi Raj Ligal had also suggested NIDC to merge with RBB or to establish itself as an investment bank in collaboration with Hydropower Investment and Development Company.
The RBB has, however, planned to widen its branch network after the merger process is completed. The bank, which already has a presence in 68 districts with a network of 166 branches, has planned to add 43 new branches.
The RBB has paid-up capital of Rs 8.5 billion and NIDC has Rs 650 million.

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