Rabindra Bahadur Malla, managing director of SmartChoice Technologies, and Tshering Dorji, managing director of T Bank, signed an agreement to this effect in Kathmandu on Sunday. SCT cardholders will soon be able use their cards in ATM terminals and Point of Sales (PoS) in Bhutan and T Bank´s customers can use their cards in Nepal. [break]
SCT has been providing integrated shared services network (SCT-Network) for Automated Teller machines (ATMs) and Point-of-sale (POS) Terminals ever since its establishment in 2001.
Seven of the 27 commercial banks in the country -- Everest Bank Ltd, NIC Bank Ltd, Citizens Bank International Ltd, Bank of Asia (Nepal) Ltd, Prime Commercial Bank Ltd, Nepal Bank Ltd and NCC Bank Ltd - are members in the SCT-Network.
“We´re proud to get the opportunity of expanding ourselves outside the country,” Malla told myrepublica.com on Tuesday.
SCT-Network and T Bank are planning to provide ATM services to the bank´s customers in Bhutan within June.
SCT cards are also accepted in India´s Punjab National Bank, according to Malla.
“SCT-Network of Nepal was an obvious choice for us as we do not have any company providing electronic banking network facilities in Bhutan. SCT-Network and some India companies were the only option available to us,” Dorji said. He also said SCT´s past performances and the facilities were something that they had been looking for.
“We believe that we would be able to provide all the facilities needed by T Bank as our services have been tried and tested with so many financial institutions,” Malla added.
Dorji said it was beneficial for them to choose a Nepali company over Indian companies as most of the Bhutanese people make pilgrimage to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, quite often. “Our customers needn´t have to carry cash anymore while visiting Lumbini,” he added.
Malla thinks his company would face no big challenge while expanding the network to Bhutan as Indian currency is widely used and accepted there.
“It is also possible to deal with other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but we will have to deal with US dollar there,” he said, adding, “We´ll be glad to join any other financial institution in our network from Nepal and other countries in the South Asian region,” he added.
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