December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.

The data of NRB shows that 25 commercial banks other than Agricultural Development Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.66 billion from their customers against the rules.

NIC Asia Bank is on top of this list and has promised to return Rs 480 million to the customers. Nabil Bank, which is in the second position, has promised to return Rs 470 million and Global IME Bank, which is in the third position, has promised to return Rs 450 million.

As per the data, Standard Chartered Bank needs to refund the lowest amount of Rs 4 million to the customers.

The executive director of NRB, Dev Kumar Dhakal said that the amount to be refunded for the premiums raised by the banks against the rules is Rs 4.66 billion. Banks have already written off the said amount from the profit of the previous fiscal year and have pledged to return the amount accordingly.

Manoj Gyawali, deputy CEO of Nabil Bank, said that they have started refunding as per the instructions of NRB. He informed that since they promised to return the amount in round figures, some of the amounts may be more or less than the exact amount.