September 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has expressed its willingness to invest Rs 2 billion of the Pension Fund in fixed deposits of banks and financial institutions (BFIs).    
Issuing a notice on Monday, the central bank has asked BFIs to bid for the aforementioned amount. The maturity date to keep the money in their fixed deposits is one year.    
According to the notice, the NRB is seeking commercial banks (group 'A') to accept fixed deposits of Rs 1.6 billion, development banks (group 'B') Rs 300 million and national level finance companies (group 'C') Rs 100 million. NRB has asked the BFIs to apply for the loan not late than mid-night of September 7.    
To avail the fund, the beneficiary BFIs should have been operating for at least for two years and must maintain minimum capital fund ratio. Similarly, they should have less than five percent of their total passive loans, and have at least 20 percent or more than that of net liquid assets of internal deposits. -- RSS