Every day, many locals visit the bank for loans but they return empty-handed. After the bank stopped providing the loans, the locals have been forced to borrow from other lenders at high interest rates. [break]
Chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Saptairi chapter, Satrudhan Prasad Rauniyar, said the bank´s decision has affected locals seeking loans for household purposes.
Shyam Narayan Yadav, a local man, has been visiting the bank repeatedly since the last two months but he has not received any loan. “I have been returning empty-handed,” he said, adding that RBB officials also were not telling why the bank has stopped providing loans against collateral in gold.
The RBB branch office stopped providing the loans under the sole decision of Shyam Kumar Thakur, chief of the branch office, said a knowledgeable source at RBB, adding that Thakur took the decision in collusion with local businessmen.
When RBB started issuing loans against gold as collateral, locals had stopped borrowing from other lenders, who saw their businesses go from bad to worse. They must then have prevailed on Thakur to take the decision so that their business would pick up again, said the source.
As private banks also do not issue loans against gold as collateral, locals are being forced to borrow from individual lenders at extremely high interest rates, complained locals.
Thakur declined to comment when this correspondent asked him for his take on the matter. He became angry and said he would not speak about bank activities.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Karki, eastern regional manager of RBB, said he was unaware why the RBB branch office in Rajbiraj had stopped issuing loans against gold. “We will investigate the matter,” he said.
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