Kathmandu. Eight more commercial banks are preparing to declare dividends. Earlier, four banks including three commercial banks and infrastructure banks have declared dividends. Now, eight more banks are preparing to declare dividends.

Machhapuchhre Bank, Sanima Bank and Citizens Bank International have already received preliminary approval from Rashtra Bank. Another eight banks are in the process of getting initial approval.

According to NRB sources, Nepal Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Kumari Bank, Himalayan Bank, Siddhartha Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, NIC Asia Bank and Nepal Bangladesh Bank have so far approached NRB for approval of financial statements.

Now Nepal Bank is also preparing to offer dividend. Nepal Bank is preparing to call a meeting of the Board of Directors of the bank and propose dividend as soon as the approval is given. As per the financial statement of the last fiscal year, the dividend capacity of Nepal Bank is 27.67 percent.

The bank has a distributable profit of Rs 3.49 billion in the last fiscal year. At present, the paid up capital of the bank is Rs. 12.63 billion. Based on this, the bank has the capacity to pay 27.67 percent dividend to the shareholders.

Similarly, Himalayan Bank has the capacity to pay 20.31 percent dividend from the last fiscal year's profit. NIC Asia Bank, which had approached Nepal Rastra Bank for approval of financial statements, received 16.62 per cent from last year's profit, Nepal Bangladesh Bank 16.38 per cent, Standard Chartered Bank 13.67 per cent, Nepal Investment Bank 12.26 per cent, Siddhartha Bank 11.11 per cent and Kumari Bank has the capacity to distribute dividend to 7.88 percent shareholders.

 Banks that have already offered dividends have also offered dividends based on their ability to pay from the last fiscal year's profit.