Kathmandu. Nepal Rastra Bank has given a 'dateline' till the end of December to three commercial banks which have weak financial ground and have not been able to achieve stability. On 26 July, the National Bank had called the owners and managers of some other banks and asked them to incorporate these three banks through merger or acquisition.

Last Thursday, the National Bank called the representatives of Siddharth, Lakshmi, Machhapuchhre, Sanima and Citizens Bank and asked them to join the three small commercial banks that have not yet agreed on the merger. A banker who participated in the meeting informed that the National Bank has requested to take over NCC, Kumari and Sunrise Bank. In the meeting, Bank of Sanima Bahok said that they will "consider" this. But Sanima Bank has submitted to the National Bank that it will not buy another bank under any circumstances.

In the meantime there was a rumor that Vinod Chaudhary tried to merge NCC with Nabeel Bank. But at that time, it was confirmed that this kind of rumor was spread only for limited people to benefit from the secondary market of shares.

On the other hand, Sunrise Bank had entered into an agreement for the acquisition of Creation Finance and later broke the agreement. This is why the Central Bank has banned Sunrise from expanding its branches for 3 years. After a dispute between the Shailendra Gurgai Group and the Dugad Group, who are also hydropower investors in Sunrise, the agreement to merge Srijana Finance collapsed.

Even in the Dugad family, there have been differences between the president of the bank Motilal Dugad and his nephew and owner Malchand Dugad since the bank's inception. This is the reason why the bank's CEO and the rest of the managerial leadership are constantly changing. This is the reason why National Bank has been pressuring Sunrise to go for merger or acquisition.

As the management of all the three banks is weak, the National Bank has given a deadline till January for merger or acquisition. After the pressure of the National Bank, these banks have shown attractive profits in the business of the last financial year.

Last year, NCC has released the data of 52 percent, Sunrise 49 percent and Kumari 44 percent increase in net profit. Among the 26 commercial banks, NCC is ranked 6th, Sunrise is 8th and Kumari is 9th in terms of profit growth rate. Based on the number of branches, these three banks are also in the top 10 in terms of per-branch profit expansion.