Kathmandu, August 6:

Four-year-old Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) — that was in loss to the tune of Rs 5 billion — has recovered it in the second year of takeover by the present management and begun posting profits.

Felicitating its best branch offices and best employees, RBB chief executive officer Janardan Acharya said the bank registered Rs 5.69 billion accumulated profit in these four years. “In fiscal 2007-08, RBB posted an unpredicted profit of Rs 1.77 billion (unaudited),” he added.

Focussing on RBB’s success, Acharya said, “RBB reduced non-performing loans (NPL) to 20 per cent from 72 per cent. To facilitate customers, its established customer care centres abroad too.”

NPL was a matter of serious concern, and the government with the World Bank’s support has been restructuring Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) and Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) under the economic sector reform programme. NBL has also been successful in reducing its non-performing loans (NPL) to 8.05 per cent from last fiscal year’s 13.49 per cent.

RBB has been providing the facilities of ATM Card, e-Banking, 365 days banking, festival banking, evening counter, morning counter and SMS banking. It plans to provide more services to its customers in future. Till date, the bank has been supporting 47 megawatt (MW) power projects.