Nepal Investment and Himalayan Bank merge

Nepal Investment and Himalayan banks are merging in two months to become the largest financial institution in the country with total combined paid-up capital of Rs26.94 billion, Rs311 billion in deposits and Rs287 billion in loans.

As per the new agreement signed on Thursday, the chairperson of Nepal Investment Bank Prithvi Bahadur Pandey will keep his post in the new bank jointly named Himalayan and Nepal Investment Bank. The CEO of Himalayan Bank Ashok Rana will also retain his title. Jyoti Pandey, the current CEO of Investment Bank will be the Deputy CEO.

A total of 2,500 people will be employed in the new bank. And, even if a dozen branches are relocated, after the merger, 152 branches of both the existing banks will provide services across the country.

The merger of two of the largest banks in the country has put pressure on others to do the same. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has been pushing for a merger to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions and plans to put up a compulsory merger policy if banks and financial institutions don’t merge voluntarily.