Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, January 9:

Despite the ongoing crisis, Bank of Kathmandu (BoK) has recorded a profit of 40.37 per cent during the fiscal year 2003-04, said Alok Singh, chairman, at a press meet organised in the capital today.

The net profit of the bank has touched Rs 127.5 million and the bank has registered the increment of 48.62 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The effective and efficient management has made BoK a top quality financial institution, Singh said.

The bank has also been able to increase its deposit by 25.46 per cent, investment by 36.4 per cent and loan by 23.72 per cent during the fiscal year 2003-04, in comparison to the previous fiscal year. BoK in its series of expanding quality service to the customers has opened two new branches at Pokhara and Biratnagar and has started ATM services in the four branches including Pokhara.

The bank has also extended its service by providing loans to over 150 youths going for foreign employment. And in return the bank is helping in collecting remittance in an average of $6 million per month, said Radesh Pant, managing director.

Monitoring of transactions, minimising risk in loan and investment, expanding its services as per the need of customers, maintaining relations with national and international financial institutions, introducing newer technologies for banking transactions are few of the projects BoK is going to implement in near future for making the bank strong, efficient and competitive, Pant said.

The earning per share has been 72.9 per cent during the fiscal year 2003-04 and the projected increment for the current fiscal year is 75.7 per cent, informed Pant. Similarly the non performing assets (NPAs) which was marked at 6.6 per cent in the last fiscal year will be reduced to five per cent, he added.

The bank will use the profit in successive terms to reach the paid up capital of one billion rupees in five years, he said.