Financial access reaches 61 per cent

Kathmandu, Oct. 16

Financial access in the country has reached about 61 per cent in 2019, revealed the latest study of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).


The number is much higher as compared with the previous statistics of 40 per cent in 2014 and 45 per cent in 2017.


FinScope Survey conducted in 2014 had concluded that about 40 per cent adults in the country – 56 per cent in the urban and 36 in the rural area - had bank accounts.


Likewise, the Global Findex Database published in 2017 concluded that 45 per cent Nepalis – 50 per cent male and 42 per cent female – aged above 15 years have their bank accounts.


The central bank has drawn the results from the analysis of the bank accounts of Nepali citizens in the banks and financial institutions (BFIs).


By mid-June 2019, there were 27.86 million bank accounts in all BFIs, which is 94.1 per cent of the total population in the country.


“After removing the duplication on the basis of Know Your Customer (KYC) forms and the details of three generations mentioned in the forms, there are 18 million bank accounts in the country,” concluded the report.


According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) – a statistical body under the National Planning Commission, the population of the country has reached 29.6 million. It means 60.9 per cent people in the country have at least one bank account in the BFI.


Likewise, each branch of a BFI is serving 3,633 people on an average. The BFIs in Karnali State are serving the largest number of people and a branch in Gandaki State is serving the smallest number of people. They have 4,958 and 2,257 people per branch of a BFI respectively.


Similarly, a branch of the BFI in State 2 is serving about 4,938 people and Sudurpaschim 4,409 people while in State 1, a BFI is serving 3,481 people, 2,770 in State 3 and 2,951 people in State 5.

There are 8,805 branches of 171 BFIs.


The NRB study has found that there are 27.8 million deposits accounts and 1.44 million loan accounts.


The number of mobile banking users has reached 8.34 million while about 67.9 million debit cards are in circulation.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 October 2019.