February 15: With the increase in number of branches of banks and financial  institutions, 33 percent population of Nepal now have access to debit cards (ATM cards).

Based on the preliminary report of the 2021 Census made public by the Department of Statistics and the report published by Nepal Rastra Bank, 33.76 percent population of Nepal have been issued debit cards.

According to the central bank, the number of people who have acquired ATM cards as of mid-January 2022 stands at 98,55,221. Among them, 93,99,525 such cards have been issued by commercial banks, 4,17,846 by development banks and 37,850 by finance companies.

As per the preliminary report of the National Census 2021, the total population has reached 2,91,91,92,480. Taking this data into consideration, the percentage of people who have been issued ATM cards is 33 percent.

Due to the advancement in technology, the number of people using mobile banking and QR Code has also increased. However, these new technologies cannot replace ATM cards at the moment, says Nabil Bank’s General Manager Manoj Gyawali.

According to him, there must be an extensive use of cashless transaction in order to replace ATM cards.

“The use of QR Code has reduced cash transaction. However, until cash transaction is completely removed ATM cards cannot be replaced,” says Gyawali.

Gyawali says that the number of customers of banks have increased but the number of ATM card users have not increased in the same proportion.

A total of 18,6000 ATM cards have been issued in a one year period from mid-January 2021 to mid-January 2022. This number is 22.44 percent more than the number of ATM cards issued in the previous year.

The number of credit card users has also increased. A total of 176,414 credit cards were issued in a one year period until mid-January 2021 which increased to 215,199 in mid-January 2022. The number of credit card users increased by almost 38,000 in one year, which is an increase by 21.98 percent.