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