NIC, Kist,BoAN Join Hands

The three commercial banks — NIC Bank, Bank of Asian Nepal (BoAN) and Kist Bank — have signed an agreement that will help their account holders use any of their branches for cash withdrawal, deposit and transfer of funds.

NIC Bank chief executive officer (CEO) Sashin Joshi, BoAN chief executive officer Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri and Kist Bank chief executive officer Kamal Prasad Gnawali signed the agreement for extended banking services for their account holders’ benefit, here today in the valley.

“Account holders of any of the three banks can now deposit or withdraw their cash and transfer funds from any of the three banks’ branches, thus increasing their access to financial institutions in a cost effective way,” Joshi said adding that the cost for such transactions would, however, be minimal.

In recent times, banks are competing to expand their branch network, but these three commercial banks here came up with the idea of providing their account holders greater access to their networks.

NIC — the 13th commercial bank established on July 21, 1998, Bank of Asia Nepal — the 22nd commercial bank established on October 12, 2007 and Kist Bank — the recently upgraded 26th commercial bank — are not the first ones to sign such an agreement.

Earlier, three other commercial banks — Bank of Kathman du, Laxmi Bank and Himalayan Bank — have also inked such an agreement to provide more access to their customers.

“This is another step in the advancement of the branchless banking that is expected to contribute to increasing access to finance in Nepal in a cost effective way,” said Joshi, who is also the president of Nepal Bankers’ Association.

“However, there will be a limit to the withdrawal amount,” he added.