NRB takes over management of NCC Bank

Kathmandu, Jan 4

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has taken over the management of  Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank(NCCB). The central bank on Tuesday dissolved the NCC board and handed it over to a three-member management team led by Director Laxmi Prapanna Niraula after expiry of the deadline given by NRB to resolve the dispute among the NCC board members.

The management team, including Deputy Director Ramesh Acharya and Assistant Director Resham Raj Regmi, has been authorized to even exercise the rights of the board of directors. The dispute had been rising due

to differences among the shareholders of Laxmi Bahadur Shrestha and Nirmal Pradhan factions. Most of the board members close to Shrestha were elected along with Chairman Prithvi Raj Legal by the 15th Annual General Meeting last March. Hari Bhattarai, Tirtha Pradhan and Ashok Shumsher Rana were representing the Pradhan faction in the board. The Shrestha family owns almost 32 percent of the 14 million promoter shares.

The Pradhan faction had submitted application at the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) with signature of 20 percent of shareholders (2.87 million shares) to convene a special general assembly. It had later moved the Patan Appellate Court making NRB, OCR and the NCC board the defendants after the special general assembly was not convened. NRB sources said the central bank had prepared to dissolve the NCC board in the third week of January but had to wait as the matter was sub judice. “NRB has intervened to ensure that the dispute among the board members does not affect the bank. The management will be tested and report published in the next five months,” NRB Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali said.  

He revealed that loan recovery will be prioritized to save the bank from risky investment. He explained that the loans mobilized to the shareholders who have procured shares amounting to one percent or more of the paid-up capital and their family members, executive chief, firms authorized to nominate board members, companies and institutions, and the interest will be recovered by selling their promoter and normal shares. But the Shrestha family has sold or transferred ownership of the shares owned by them or in the name of their companies after the 15th AGM.  

If NCC Bank is deemed to be capable of fulfilling its liability as per the NRB’s report, it will convene a general assembly and hand over the bank to the elected board of directors. NRB stated that the bank will be handed over to the new board by providing a deadline of a year to come with the agenda of merger as required to complete capital by the end of the current fiscal year.