KATHMANDU, July 19: The government took loans worth Rs 255.99 billion in the last fiscal year that ended on Sunday.

KATHMANDU, July 10: The Department of Cooperatives (DoC) has asked the cooperatives to send the details of the individuals and institutions that have taken loans worth over Rs 10 million from the cooperatives concerned.

KATHMANDU, June 10: The credit flow from banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to the private sector increased 3.3 percent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.

KATHMANDU, May 7: Although commercial banks of Nepal have started offering easy loans to their clients due to sufficient amounts of loanable funds, they are unable to raise the demand for loans from the borrowers.

KATHMANDU, May 2: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be providing US $52.80 million (equivalent to Rs 6.90 billion) under its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Nepal.

KATHMANDU, April 16: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), a state-owned utility, has matured loans of 63.7 billion rupees. The NEA has taken loans through the government to build various hydropower projects.

KATHMANDU, April 13: After immense pressure and facing a slowdown in their businesses, Nepali commercial banks have finally shown some indication of reducing the interest rates on loans.

KATHMANDU, April 3: Nepali commercial banks have taken loans of Rs 59.17 billion from foreign companies in the past five years.

KATHMANDU, March 27: The government is set to call for proposals from interested startups businesses to avail  collateral free loans with finalizing the working guideline on the matter.

KATHMANDU, March 2: Banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have drawn the government’s attention toward the menace that they have been sustaining from various sectors at present.

KATHMANDU, Feb 23: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has tightened the lending of loans from microfinance companies. Now borrowers who have taken loans from any bank will not get loans from microfinance companies. In addition, NRB has made such arrangements that no one can take loans from more than one microfinance company.

KATHMANDU, Feb 21: Executive Director of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Revati Prasad Nepal has said that the central bank is going to introduce a provision where one person cannot take loans from multiple microfinance institutions.

KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stepped up efforts to bar banks and financial institutions (BFIs) from showing the capitalized interest during the moratorium period of outstanding loans in their profit account.

KATHMANDU, Dec 31: The cooperatives of Nepal have fallen into financial crisis one after another due to their excessive investment in real estate, automobiles and other unproductive businesses.

KATHMANDU, August 28: NMB Bank on Sunday signed an agreement with British International Investment to receive a loan of USD 25 million.

KATHMANDU, August 17: The Department of Cooperatives (DoC) has barred cooperatives from issuing loans in real estate businesses, citing soaring liquidity crisis and increasing number of cooperatives falling into problems due to their excessive exposure on realty investment.

KATHMANDU, May 27: Cooperatives now have to invest at least 51 percent of their issued credit on production businesses, abiding with the unified directives endorsed by the Department of Cooperatives (DoC) on Thursday.

KATHMANDU, April 16: Banks provided interest-subsidized loans worth Rs 215.76 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

KATHMANDU, March 15: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is injecting US $ 932 million in 2022 in Nepal - around four-folds of the amount disbursed in 2021.

KATHMANDU, March 14: Commercial banks have collected deposits worth Rs 14 billion in the past three weeks while they provided loans worth Rs 10 billion during the same period.

KATHMANDU, Feb 23: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has extended the deadline for the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to inject investment in specified sectors by up to two years.

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) permitted the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to issue loans of up to Rs 500,000 to their customers via digital platforms.

KATHMANDU, Jan 22: The commercial banks have raised their base interest rate on loans by more than two point percent effective from mid January, citing an increase in their expenses for the interest on deposits.

KATHMANDU, Dec 17: Commercial banks issued additional loans worth Rs 360 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year, which was more than 16 times their deposit collections over the period.

KATHMANDU, Dec 16: Banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have been barred from altering their interest rates on fixed-rate loans without receiving the consensus of the borrowers.

KATHMANDU, Nov 20: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is allowing its depositors to borrow up to Rs 5 million to purchase land.

KATHMANDU, Nov 13: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started on-site investigations on the land scam in which Kumari Bank has been accused of issuing loans against the counterfeit land ownership certificate.

KATHMANDU, Oct 11: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has asked the bank and financial institutions (BFIs) to take forward into auction the collateral assets of those borrowers only if the loan amount remains overdue for six months and more.

KATHMANDU, Sept 28: The amount of loans provided by the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) has increased compared to the last fiscal year. Most loans have been flown to wholesalers and retailers.

KATHMANDU, July 9: The Insurance Board (IB) has barred buyers of life insurance policies from surrendering before settling the premium payments for three years.

KATHMANDU, June 9: The second wave of COVID pandemic has affected the credit investment of banks. Although during the onset of the second wave of the pandemic it did not seem to have much effect, the problem has started to become visible in recent days.

KATHMANDU, Dec 15: A rising trend in non-performing loans (NPLs) of commercial banks point to some emerging vulnerabilities in the banking sector, concludes a recent report of the World Bank.

KATHMANDU, Sep 1: As many as 300 people from Sarlahi who have taken loans from Shyam Krishna Kalawar Sah, a local loan shark, have arrived in Kathmandu seeking justice from government authorities after Sah “terrorized” them by preparing false documents.

KATHMANDU, July 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has extended the deadline for the repayment of principal, interest and installment of loans by an additional 15 days.

KATHMANDU, June 19: Development Bankers Association Nepal (DBAN) has urged the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to allow 'B' class development banks to deduct loans floated to agriculture sector in excess to the regulatory requirement in the credit to core capital plus deposit (CCD) ratio.

KATHMANDU, May 16: The use of refinance facility provided by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has increased in the first eight months of the current fiscal year – FY2018/19 as private sector sought more concessional loans under this scheme amid shortage of lendable fund in banking sector and skyrocketing interest rates.

World Bank must change course

April 15, 2019 01:05 am

BRUSSELS – Critics have called new World Bank president David Malpass an arsonist in charge of a fire department, because of past comments he made on Bank salaries and loans to China. But it’s far more important to focus on improving progress toward the World Bank’s core mission of ending extreme poverty.

KATHMANDU, Feb 7: Private sector leaders have sought the intervention of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the skyrocketing lending rates of bank and financial institutions (BFIs) that, they say, is further eroding competitiveness of the country’s manufacturing sector.

KATHMANDU, Feb 1: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has sought details of loans that bank and financial institutions (BFIs) have floated until mid-January under subsidized loan schemes.

KATHMANDU, Jan 20: The government has disbursed  Rs 758.2 million in interest subsidy for loans floated under a concessional credit scheme for certain agricultural and livestock businesses.  It bears five percent of the interest for loans disbursed by banks and financial institutions.

NRB’s directive to banks and BFIs

January 14, 2019 17:17 pm

KATHMANDU, Jan 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has directed the banks and financial institutions to submit the details of all the loans and facilities they have approved to it.

Life is all about getting up

November 14, 2018 11:22 am

Dear Sadichha, I am a 27-year-old woman currently working for one of the business houses in Kathmandu. I have been working there for the past five years now and many things have changed over the years. My boss recently proposed to me.

KATHMANDU, Nov 7: Banks and financial institutions (BFIs) will now be allowed to provide only 50 percent loans for the purchase of automobiles for personal use. Issuing a new circular on Tuesday, Nepal Rastra Bank lowered the limit of the loan-to-value ratio in the purchase of autos to 50 percent from the existing 65 percent.

KATHMANDU, Sept 28: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unveiled unified working procedure related to interest subsidy for concessional loans, paving the way for unemployed educated youths, returnee migrant workers, women entrepreneurs, Dalits and earthquake victims, among other targeted groups, to borrow money from bank and financial institutions at cheaper interest rates.

KATHMANDU, July 14: Although tea has been considered as a competitive product of the country, most of the tea farmers are apparently uninterested in expanding their business.

KATHMANDU, July 12: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has introduced a provision in the Monetary Policy for Fiscal Year 2018/19 which allows banks to count loans against academic certificates, and higher education loans for students of marginalized and Dalit community, among others, as deprived sector lending.

PALPA, July 10: Bagnaskali rural municipality of Palpa has started to provide loans to promote self employment in agriculture and animal husbandry after youths present their education certificates as collateral.

REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, July 4 Commercial banks have slowed down their loan investment as they prepare to close their accounts at the end of the current fiscal year. Deposit flow in the banking system, however, has increased amid rise in government spending. Data compiled by Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) shows that 28 commercial banks extended Rs 17 billion in the past three weeks (between June 8 and June 29), while their deposit rose Rs 41 billion in the same period. With this, total outstanding deposit and loans of these commercial banks has reached Rs 2,377 billion and Rs 2,080 billion as of as of June 29. The recovery in deposit mobilization by commercial banks, who have been suffering from the shortage of lendable fund since long, comes in the wake of the rise in government expenditure at fiscal year-end. Increased government spending pumps more cash into the banking system. According to the data of Financial Comptroller General Office, the government has so far spent 54.26 percent of the capital budget allocated for the current fiscal year. The government has spent Rs 181.88 billion out of Rs 335.18 billion allocated for development spending for FY2017/18. A lion's share of such fund was spent in the past two months. Despite deposits growth, bank lending has slowed in recent days. Bankers say that the slowdown in lending at the fiscal year-end is a natural phenomenon in the banking industry. “Since most of the banks focus on recovery of their loans in the last month of the fiscal year, lending slows down during this time,” Bhuvan Dahal, CEO of Sanima Bank Ltd, said. According to bankers, many investors also do not seek loans during this time when business firms close their book and accounts. Banking industry has been seeing shortage of lendable fund in recent months due to mismatch in their deposits and loan growth. As banks expanded their lending investment sharply despite slow growth in deposit, the credit to core capital cum deposit (CCD) ratio of many banks have reached a saturation level. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) requires banks to maintain CCD ratio of 80 percent. Many banks even saw their CCD ratio touching the upper limit, leading to a sharp rise in deposit rates. However, even the increment in deposit rates to over 13 percent failed to bring adequate deposits into the banking system. The skyrocketing interest rates prompted bankers to cap their saving rate at 7 percent and fixed deposit at 12 percent.

GORKHA, June 3: The settlements in the northern parts of Gorkha district are almost deserted at present. Hardly any youths can be seen here. Apart from teachers, elected representatives and employees of firms and organizations, those settlements do not have any population between the age of 20 to 50.

Grants, concessional loans galore

May 30, 2018 09:58 am

KATHMANDU, May 30: The government has announced grants and concessional loan for entrepreneurship development through the budget for Fiscal Year 2018/19.