Limit of paid-up capital for opening a foreign bank in Nepal reduced to 20 million dollars

KATHMANDU: MARCH. 16 – Nepal Rastra Bank has reduced its paid-up capital limit to $20 million in order to open a branch of a foreign bank in Nepal.

In Nepal, Nepali investors are required to have a paid-up capital of Rs 8 billion to open a Class A bank, i.e. a commercial bank.

As a result, there was a provision to decide that only Rs. 8 billion would be required to open a foreign bank in Nepal. However, the NRB recently issued the ‘Foreign Bank Branch Licensing Policy 2022,’ which sets a limit of $20 million (approximately Rs 2.44 billion) for opening a foreign bank in Nepal.

The NRB made such an arrangement after increasing the risk of foreign banks not coming to Nepal and setting a higher paid-up capital limit.