Kathmandu, October 9:

The 22nd and 23rd commercial banks, Bank of Asia and Sunrise Bank, are coming into operation from October 12. Both the banks, which have Rs 2 billion authorised capital and Rs 1 billion issued capital — 70 per cent promoters and 30 per cent public — are promoted by business groups.

“Sunrise Bank aims to be one of the leading banks by 2012,” says Kishore Maharjan, CEO of Sunrise Bank adding that the mission of Sunrise is to deliver taste of modern banking services.

T M Duggar group is one of the promoters of Sunrise Bank. Similarly, Shangai and Bishal group are the major promoters of Bank of Asia that aims at providing quality services on demand-based approach.

Three more banks got approval from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) board this we-ek making the total number of commercial banks to 26.

“NRB cannot stop any one, if they apply according to the rule,” says Krishna Bahadur Manandhar, acting governor of NRB. But with the increasing number of financial institutions, NRB has to increase its supervisory capacity, which is a major challenge. The more number of commercial banks means the more difficult it will be for the NRB to supervise promptly.

The market is not growing in proportion to number of players that has been increasing in geometrical proportion lately. Banking yield has gone down due to cut-throat competition. But NRB data shows that only 20 per cent have access to banking services leaving the vast majority out of the banking reach.

When 2010 opens up market for international players, according to the WTO norms, local banks will have a tough time.

Nepse dips

KATHMANDU: Nepse has again been suspended twice on Tuesday due to decrease in its index — first by 20 points and later by 25 points — from previous day. The Nepse lost 25.80 points or 2.95 per cent to 848.12 points. Banking sub-index also lost 39.48 points or 4.09 per cent to 924.70 points due to NRB’s directives to curtail margin lending in the secondary market. — HNS