Kathmandu. Nepal Rastra Bank has taken action against 14 commercial banks for violating the directive. The supervision department of NRB has taken action against the commercial banks violating the directive in the first and second quarters of the current fiscal year.

The affected banks are Prabhu Bank, Nepal Bank, Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nabil Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, NCC Bank, Citizens Bank, Sunrise Bank, Mega Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, NMB Bank and Century Bank.

The central bank has fined Prabhu Bank Rs. 180,430 for not maintaining the required cash reserve and statutory liquidity ratio. In addition, action has been taken against Nepal Bank for violating the provision of not being allowed to change the published interest rate for 3 months in case of term deposit collected on the basis of bidding and for not following the instruction given by Nepal Bank to freeze the account of Atlas Engineering Construction Company. NRB has alerted the CEO of the bank for this.

In addition, Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nabil Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nepal SBI, Nepal Bangladesh Bank, NCC Bank, Citizens Bank, Sunrise Bank, Mega Bank and Century Bank have also violated the provision of not being allowed to change the published interest rate for 3 months. The CEOs of the bank have been warned saying that they have done so.

Similarly, Standard Chartered and NMB Bank have been prosecuted for violating the provision that the difference between the maximum and minimum interest rates on deposit accounts other than total deposits cannot be more than 5 percentage points.