Anticipating rise in demand for withdrawals from clients to meet their daily livelihoods, Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) had even set per withdrawal limit of Rs 50,000 in the wake of the earthquake that shook the entire nation.
"Unlike what we had expected, deposits have increased significantly compared to the withdrawal," Bhuvan Dahal, CEO of Sanima Bank Ltd, told Republica.Though total data of deposits and withdrawals from BFIs was not available immediately, many bankers that Republica talked to said they observed similar trend in the banking system.
Take the example of Sanima Bank. According to Sanima Bank's CEO Dahal, the bank mobilized Rs 393.4 million in deposits in the first four days after the earthquake while stood at Rs 333.6 million. "This pattern suggests that people's confidence in the banking system has increased. It seems that people feel that their money remains safe in BFIs rather than their home even during natural disasters," added Dahal.
According to Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) Vice-president Anil Shah, the trend of deposit surge is a reflection of growing confidence of people toward banking system. "The way the BFIs delivered their banking services despite all the odds in the aftermath of the earthquake helped increase people's trust toward BFIs," Shah, who is also the CEO of Mega Bank Nepal, said. "People complained that they did not get shelter, food or other services. Nobody said that they could not withdraw money from the bank."
Shah said many people chose to deposit their money in bans as many homes were destroyed by the earthquake.
While people deposited a large sum of money in the BFIs following the quake seeking safety of their money, clients' withdrawal was limited to few thousand rupees, mostly from the ATM outlets, to meet their daily needs. "As there was no economic activity during the last 10 days, the withdrawal was mostly for meeting daily needs which stands at few thousands of rupees for per household. The total withdrawal amount in the last 10 days was lower compared to deposits collected by the BFIs. This shows that there people's confidence toward banking system has increased," Min Bahadur Shrestha, spokesperson of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), told Republica.
Observers say deposit mobilization has increased also because of flow of relief funds by various organizations, companies and individuals.
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