KATHMANDU, MAY 04 - 2012
After Citi Bank’s announcement that would not carry out business
transactions with Nepal’s government and private agencies, the Nepal
Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to shift its international banking
transactions to Standard Chartered Bank.
NRB officials said the central bank has already started shifting
businesses such as international payment and payment against letters of
credit to Standard Chartered.
“After Citi informed us that it will not do business with NRB and other
commercial banks a few weeks ago, we decided to shift our accounts and
businesses to Standard Chartered,” said a senior NRB official. “As
Standard Chartered has one of the largest global networks, we had
decided to go with it although other banks such as JP Morgan Chase were
under consideration.”
Citing increased regulatory compliance cost against business volume, Citi decided not to do business with Nepal.
According to central bank officials, Citi was covering some 80-90
percent of NRB’s corresponding banking business. Over the last two
years, the central bank had been conducting most of its international
business transactions through Citi.
NRB officials say Standard Chartered is the best option as doing
business with other international banks could be costly. “We will go for
other banks if problems arise with Standard Chartered,” said the NRB
official.
With NRB also making investment in US banks, including Citi, NRB has
removed its investment in Citi Bank. “Although Citi has not told us that
it will not take investment from Nepali banks, we have moved our
investment from Citi after they matured,” said another NRB official.
Along with NRB, other commercial banks have also started shifting their businesses from Citi to other banks.
Source: Kantipur