Kathmandu, December 24:

Travelling has never been so comfortable and hassle-free. With all your troubles from providing loan and booking tickets to insurance taken care by a bank, its more than a dream come true for travel bugs.

Laxmi Bank Ltd (LBL), a pioneer in various new products in retail banking, has brought, Laxmi Bank – Travel Related Services, the first of its kind, in Nepal.

“In its five-year long journey, Laxmi Bank has been at the forefront of pioneering a number of new and innovative services and products,” said Suman Joshi, chief executive officer (CEO) of Laxmi Bank, adding that the bank is proud to be recognised as an innovative leader in the retail banking sector.

Laxmi Bank – Travel Related Services is the bank’s innovative product packaged with some of the strategic partners like Gandaki Travels, Everest Travels and Rainbow Travels as its ticketing partners and Lalit Mandap Travels & Tours as package tour partner apart from Yeti Airlines, Buddha Air, all the leading players on their own in their respective fields, to offer its clientele a complete travel related services.

Under Laxmi Bank’s Travel Service customers can book air tickets to their required destinations or tour packages — domestic or foreign — on preferential basis and at special rates and discounts. The customers will also be able to purchase and pay for tickets through the bank in a convenient manner.

“It offers four travel related services bookings, monies, insurance and Loans,” added Joshi. “We have joined hands

with Everest Insurance Company as our travel insurance partner.

Laxmi Bank’s branches across the country will distribute Everest Insurance’s Everest Travel Trip Insurance Policy, a highly popular and extremely flexible insurance solution that is available at a very affordable and convenient manner,” he said, adding that travel insurance is an integral part for the travellers.

“Travel insurance, though not much in practice in Nepal, is slowly picking up, lately,” said Rama Dahal, senior manager at the Everest Insurance, adding that travel insurance is a must for a hassle-free and secure travel.

According to the figures, last year more than 4,00,000 Nepalis travelled abroad. “The number has been regularly increasing in recent days,” said Suraj Shakya, chairman of Lalit Mandap Travels & Tours that claims to have brought the culture of package foreign tours among Nepalis.

“Laxmi Bank is keen to capitalise on this trend as it continues to expand its businesses, reach and number of customers,” said Joshi, adding that Laxmi Bank’s Travel Related Services is thus yet another dimension to its convienance banking theme under which it offers several non-traditional and lifestyle management services such as Bancassurance, complete Internet banking and transaction alerts.

The customers can get this service also by applying online through the Bank’s internet banking channel, Laxmi iBank.

Laxmi Bank — to strive forward to its goal of being a one stop provider of financial solutions — has emerged as a key player in both retail and wholesale banking segments. Similarly, Laxmi Bank has posted Rs 50 million operating profit for the first quarter of current fiscal year.