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Friday, April 30, 2010

NB Bank opens 18th branch

Nepal Bangladesh Bank on Thursday opened its 18th branch at Sallaghari in Bhaktapur. Issuing a press release, the bank said that the branch will provide all modern banking services to its customers. The branch also has automated teller machine (ATM) services. Prior to this, the bank was operating 17 branches and its client base stood at 115,000.

The bank has also revised its special fixed deposit schemes, under which the customers can now open accounts at Rs 111,000. Previously, the customers could open accounts under this scheme at Rs 555,000.

The bank has is also planning to install seven new ATMs within this fiscal. It also formally launched internet banking services from Thursday. The bank also said that it would start issuing loans against gold and gold jewelries by the end of this fiscal.


Source:
myrepublica.com

Sunrise Bank at Harisiddhi

Sunrise Bank Limited on Thursday opened its 33rd branch at Harisiddhi, Lalitpur. A press statement issued by the bank said that the new branch would provide modern banking access to the locals and small and medium enterprises of the area and its surroundings. Suman Naupane, general manager of the bank, said that they had aimed to reach new areas rendering banking competition.

Source:
ekantipur.com

Depositors lose confidence

Despite various measures commercial banks could not increase the deposits, the deposit mobilisation has increased by only 4.2 per cent amounting to Rs 22.9 billion till the first eight months of the current fiscal year. According to the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)'s macroeconomic report of first eight months of current fiscal year, the total deposit amount with the commercial banks increased by only 4.2 per cent to Rs 572.7 billion whereas in the same period of last year the total deposit had increased by 14.3 per cent.

Currently, the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) are distressed due to dwindling deposits so that they have been raising the interest rates to attract new deposits. The money coming in the bank is waning mainly due to loss of confidence in the banking system and due to shrinking remittance inflows. The shortage of cash last October has also played a major role. Likewise, due to Anti-money Laundering Act people are apprehensive to go to banks to deposit the money, though the Act has been brought according to the international rule.

Under the act, a depositor who deposits more than Rs 1 million needs to disclose the source of income while depositing at the BFIs. To avoid disclosing the source, the depositors are shying away from banks to deposit the large amounts. Lack of awareness among the depositors has caused a huge loss of deposits. The private sector credit of commercial banks has increased by 16.5 per cent. Among the total private sector credit, the credit to production sector increased by 9.5 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal year in comparison with the growth of 12 per cent in the samer period last year. Under the production sector credit, the credit to sugar, cement, iron and steel industries observed a greater credit expansion.

Similarly, credit to agriculture sector has also increased by Rs 2 billion. "Credit to wholesale and retail businesses has also expanded by 23.2 per cent and the credit to finance, insurance and fixed assets also increased by 41.6 per cent while the credit to service sector increased by 20.2 per cent," said the report.

The credit to real estate sector was extended to Rs 14.9 billion as compared to Rs 7.7 billion in last year's corresponding period. The liquid assets of the commercial banks stand at Rs 167.9 billion by mid-March. Among the liquid assets, liquid fund has declined by 9.7 per cent. This decline in liquid fund of commercial banks is attributed to the decline in commercial bank's balance with the NRB as well as balance held abroad. The balance held abroad by commercial banks has gone down by Rs 4.3 billion amounting to Rs 49.2 billion whereas the balance with NRB has declined by Rs 10.1 billion. Similarly, commercial bank's investments in government securities have also declined by 12.3 per cent.

The liabilities, assets structure of commercial banks has also changed due to higher growth of commercial banks' loans and advances relative to their deposit mobilisation. The serious concern is credit to deposit (CD) ratio. The CD ratio increased to 90.2 per cent in mid-March from 81.2 per cent in mid-July 2009. "The liquidity-deposit ratio also declined to 29.3 per cent in mid-March 2010 from 34.2 per cent in mid-July 2009," said the report.

Source:
THT

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Siddhartha Bank open five branch office

Siddartha Bank Ltd inaugurated five new branches in Kathmandu's Tinkune, Kalanki, Gongabu, Gattaghar and Kumaripati on Thursday. These branches intend to extend modern banking services to industrialists, businessmen and general public. The bank floats project loan, business loan, home loan, personal loan as well as hire purchase loan and education loan. Similarly, the bank also provides different types of savings and fixed deposits. The bank has 30 branches in all. It has been able to collect deposits worth Rs 19.46 billion and provided loans worth Rs 16.9 billion within midApril.


Source:
THT

Fire breaks out at Nepal Bank Limited

Nepal Bank Limited (NBL), the oldest state-owned bank caught fire on Saturday morning. The fire started at 5:00 am and was brought under control only at 8: 45 am. Binod Atreya, chief executive officer of the bank said that the fire destroyed two storerooms that had old documents. "Documents that were destroyed were kept for disposal," he said. According to him, there were no important documents related to customers or the bank that were destroy by fire.

The actual loss has not been ascertained yet. The bank said that there was a minor loss of the old papers kept for sell through auction and two storerooms. "As the fire started in the old storehouse at the back of the bank, the immediate response from the Nepal Army, Armed Police, Nepal Police and fire brigade was to take control of the fire to prevent its spread in the main building," Atreya said. The blaze was controlled by four fire engines. He further said the reason for the fire was unknown, but old electric appliances and other equipments kept in the storehouse might be the reason.

Some 150 personnel of Nepal Army, 250 from Armed Police and 50 from Nepal Police were deployed to control the fire. NBL is the oldest commercial bank of Nepal established in 1937, which marked the beginning of an era of formal banking in Nepal. The Bank is also one of the largest in Nepal with 107 branches in 55 districts of the country. It was formed under the principle of joint venture between the government and public. NBL's authorized capital was Rs 10 million and issued capital Rs 2.5 million of which paid-up capital was Rs 842,000 with 10 shareholders. As of mid-Jan 2010, the bank has paid up capital of Rs 380 million. The capital fund against risk weighted assets in the same period was negative by 21.27 percent and the non-performing loans at 3.77 percent.

Source:
ekantipur.com

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

ADBL's IPO oversubscribed by 150%

The initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) has been oversubscribed by one and a half times till Tuesday, the third day of the issue. Siddhant Raj Pandey, Chief Executive Officer of Ace Development Bank - the issue manager for the largest ever IPO in the country, told media persons that about 55,000 people have subscribed for shares worth Rs 1.4 billion till Tuesday evening. "The warm response from the public despite liquidity crunch and sluggish stock market has encouraged us. We have found equal response to the issue both in the capital and other parts of the country," Pandey said.

He said application for shares worth Rs 390 million was collected by ADBL´s branches in the capital alone. "Most of the payments for applications were made through banking system in the capital, while home deposits were used in rural areas," he added. He said applications for subscription will be closed from Wednesday evening.

ADBL has issued IPO of 9.6 million units of shares worth Rs 960 million from Sunday. Bank officials and the issue manager have claimed that the banks share will be oversubscribed by five times due to sound financial performance of the bank. A total of 288 outlets have been set up to collect applications across the country.

With the new issues, total stake for public in the largest commercial bank in terms of branch network will increase to 44.14 percent. The bank issued 14.14 percent shares -- 4.52 million units-- to its debtors on December 10, 2007 in a bid to gradually divest the bank´s share to public.

Source:
myrepublica.com