Three large state-backed banks have reopened 127 out of the 284 branches that were closed during the 1996-2006 conflict in a bid to expand their services.
Three large state-backed banks have reopened 127 out of the 284 branches that were closed during the 1996-2006 conflict in a bid to expand their services.
Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) and Agricultural Development Bank Limited (ADBL) have got their branches up and running in many parts of the country. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had instructed them last year to reinstate their branches to boost financial access for the people.
According to the central bank, NBL has reopened 26 of the 120 branches closed during the conflict for security reasons. Likewise, RBB has reopened 47 branches out of 97, and ADBL has reopened 54 out of the 67 branches that were closed during the fighting. The central bank said that the reinstatement of public bank branches would help to expand access to finance.
RBB CEO Krishna Sharma said that the country’s largest bank had planned to reopen all the closed branches by the end of the fiscal year. “We will re-establish our branches wherever possible, and provide branchless banking in areas where this is not feasible,” he said.
RBB currently maintains 162 branches; 97 branches were closed during the conflict. It plans to increase the number of branches to 250 by 2020 by expanding to emerging towns where there is immense economic potential.
NBL, which suffered the closure of the largest number of branches during the conflict period, is also reviving them.
The oldest bank in the country, however, has been making slow progress, with 26 branches reinstated so far and another six on the way to being reopened. It does not plan to reopen all of them.
“We had opened branches in very remote areas where there was no business potential and where there were branches close together,” said Janardan Acharya, chairman of NBL.
The bank had more than 200 branches before many of them merged during the conflict due to threats from the then rebel Maoists. “We have planned to increase our branch network to 150 from the current 127 in the next three years,” he said.
According to him, NBL has not decided whether to reopen some of the branches in their original locations as it is being politically pressured
to do, even though business activities have shifted to rising urban centres elsewhere.
Among the three public banks, ADBL has moved the fastest to reopen its closed branches, and almost all of them have been restored.
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