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Kathmandu Saturday September 15, 2001 Bhadra 30, 2058.
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PM inaugurates Kumari Bank
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Sept 14 - Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated Kumari
Bank Limited amid a function today.
Kumari Bank is the 15th commercial bank. Though the Bank was formally opened
Friday, it had begun its banking transactions a couple of months earlier.
Following the adopting of liberal economic policy by the government, the
banking and financial sector has made a good progress over the years.
"Besides investing in small schemes, the time to invest in big projects
like hydroelectricity, tourism and agriculture has come," said PM Deuba urging the
commercial banks to expand their investment areas.
Over a dozen development banks and 49 finance companies have been established
during the past one and a half decades.
PM Deuba also instructed the banking sector to reach to the common people.
Though there has been considerable increasement in the number of commercial
banks, the institutional loan flow in the remote areas have remained weak.
Governor Dr Tilak Rawal said the central bank has adopted flexible monetary
policy in order to avert the possible implications of the global recession in the country.
To ward off economic recession in the country, Nepal Rastra Bank has reduced the
refinancing rates.
He also ruled out the possibility of devaluating Nepalese currency against
Indian currency. The real exchange rate shows that Nepalese currency is not overvalued.
The current pegging is prefect.
He said that peace and security is a must for the consolidation of an
economy.
Now economy is more affected by non-economic factors. Because of it, a few
weeks ago some depositors withdrew their money from banks, but the situation is controlled
now.
The governor also claimed that all the commercial banks are in good liquidity
position. Now commercial banks have a total of Rs 176 billion deposit and their total
investment stands at Rs 110 billion.
Though the two state-owned commercial banks’ financial condition is not
good, they are not on the verge of closure. They can be improved, he stressed.
Noor Pratap Rana, Chairman of Kumari Bank, said that the bank is introducing
modern technology and skilled manpower and also opening branches in different parts of the
country.
He claimed that the target of the bank is not only to earn profit, but also
to contribute to the interests of depositors, national economy and the target group
defined by the government and Nepal Rastra Bank.
Chief Executive of the bank Surendra Bhandari said that the bank has
collected a deposit of Rs 600 million and made a total investment of Rs 580 million over
the past five months of the bank’s soft launch. He also said that the bank was going
to introduce Telebanking, ATM and Internet banking facilities in the near future.
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