Kathmandu: Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, has taken regulatory action against three commercial banks for violating supervisory directives during the second quarter of the current fiscal year 2025/26.
The Bank Supervision Department imposed penalties on NIC Asia Bank, Global IME Bank, and Nepal Investment Mega Bank following findings of non-compliance.
In the case of NIC Asia Bank, the central bank fined its former chairman Tulsi Ram Agrawal and former chief executive officer Roshan Kumar Neupane Rs 200,000 each. The regulator said the bank repeatedly failed to comply with official directives and continued publishing financial statements in violation of instructions, including ignoring written orders issued by the central bank. The penalties were imposed under Section 100(2)(g) of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act.
Global IME Bank was issued a formal warning to its chief executive based on findings from an on-site inspection conducted in 2025. According to the central bank, the bank failed to maintain adequate loan-loss provisions as required under Unified Directive No. 2/081. It did not classify overdue loans properly based on the duration of delinquency and fell short of fully complying with regulations governing loan rescheduling and restructuring. Inspectors also found weaknesses in the bank’s core banking system, including the ability to recreate fully repaid loans using previous value dates—an issue the regulator flagged as a serious compliance lapse.
Similarly, Nepal Investment Mega Bank was warned for failing to fully comply with multiple regulatory directives. The central bank said the bank extended loans without ensuring proper documentation and customer signatures, and in some cases lent amounts exceeding collateral coverage, breaching provisions of Directive No. 2/081. It was also found to have maintained interest rate spreads exceeding the permitted two percentage points for similar categories of loans, violating Directive No. 15/081.
Furthermore, the bank did not fully adhere to the 2022 Working Capital Loan Guidelines, disbursing new short-term loans in the final months of a quarter and using them to facilitate loan recovery. As a result, the central bank issued formal warnings to the bank’s board of directors and chief executive under Section 100(2)(a) of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act.
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