December 14: At a time when industrialists and entrepreneurs have been protesting against the banks and financial institutions’ increased interest rates on lending, commercial banks, development banks and finance companies have decided to keep the interest rate on deposits stable for the next month of mid-December to mid-January 2023. 

Nepal Bankers’ Association Chairman Anil Kumar Upadhaya said that the association had decided to give continuity to the existing interest rates which the banks have enforced for the last two months. 

With the decision, interest rate of 12.133 per cent per annum on fixed deposits to individual depositors will be maintained for the next month. Similarly, an interest rate of 10.133 per annum on fixed deposits to institutional depositors will be given continuity for the next month as well. 

Development banks and finance companies have also decided to keep the interest rate unchanged for the next month of mid-December to mid-January. 

Development Bankers’ Association had fixed the interest rate of 12.85 per cent on fixed deposit by reducing it by 0.15 per cent for the current month. 

Likewise, finance companies have been offering an interest rate of 13 per cent on 3-months’ fixed deposit and 13.30 per on 1 year’s fixed deposits for the existing month. 

As per the Nepal Rastra Bank’s directives, banks and financial institutions have to publish interest rate they wish to enforce every month before the beginning of new month. 
 

Banks can increase their interest only by 10 per cent at a time. But, citing liquidity crunch, umbrella organizations of banks and financial institutions have been controlling interest rate to ward off unhealthy competition.