The number of mobile banking service users has reached 1.5 million as of mid-May, which is nearly 10 percent of the total deposit accounts in Banks and Financial Institutions (BFIs).

There are 16.12 million savings account in BFIs, according to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Among the BFIs, the number commercial bank customers using mobile banking services stands at 1.43 million.

Bankers attribute the surge in the number of mobile banking users to fast growing penetration of mobile telecommunication.

According to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the number of mobile telecommunication subscriptions stands at 27.85 million as of mid-February, which is 105.15 percent of the population.

“Mainly new customers are seeking  electronic banking facilities, including mobile banking,” said Rajan Amatya, deputy general manager of Nepal Investment Bank Limited (NIBL). He said of the 700,000 accounts at NIBL, about 30,000 accountholders use mobile banking.

Under the mobile banking services, banks offer facilities like balance inquiry, SMS alert, account transfer and utility payments. “Most of mobile banking users, however, only use services like balance inquiry and SMS alert,” said Amatya.

Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, which has yet to launch mobile banking despite being an international bank, is also considering starting such a service.

Diwakar Poudel, head of brand and marketing and corporate affairs at Standard Chartered, said the delay was because they could not just start mobile banking based on local platforms. “We are an international bank and we have maintain certain global standards. We have plans to start mobile banking by the end of 2016,” he said.

As far as internet banking is concerned, the number of users stand at 476,213, according to NRB. NIBL said they have 50,000 customers using internet banking, while Standard Chartered has 35,000 customers using this service.

Access to Finance

Commercial Banks          Development Banks       Finance Companies        Total

No of Deposit Accounts                12375072             3205568                546366  16127006

No of Mobile Banking Customers             1435532                137901  15833    1589266

No of Internet Banking Customers           453076  20578    2559       476213

No of Branchless Banking Customers      214604  —-           —             214604

(Source: Nepal Rastra Bank)