“We are extending financial support to Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) in the first phase,” Pandey said at the 43rd anniversary of Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) on Sunday. [break]
He said the budget for crucial sectors like education, roads and health would be affected if the government provided financial support to RBB -- the largest commercial bank in terms of deposits and branch network.
“However, we are discussing on ways to make the net worth of RBB positive. We are also exploring other measures to revive RBB´s financial health,” he added. He also informed that the government was soon coming up with concrete measures to make net worth of NBL positive. Pandey asked the RBB management to reduce the volume of its non-performing loan.
RBB has already recovered its bad loans under the financial sector reform program that has been running for the last seven years. The bank earned a net profit of Rs 9.37 billion during the period.
Admitting that liquidity crunch is plaguing the market, Minister Pandey expressed hope that the problem would end by the second week of February.
He also said the government imposed restriction on investment in gold and realty sector in a bid to discourage soaring investment in unproductive sectors.
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