March 13: The victims of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) staged a protest at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu on Sunday. The protest was organized by the Bank and Financial Problem Struggle Committee.

The committee held the peaceful demonstration to draw the attention of the government, regulatory bodies and banks and financial institutions to solve the problems related to bank and financial institutions.

The customers of banks and financial institutions are currently facing problems such as unnatural increase in interest rate due to the lack of investable capital and liquidity in the banking system. The committee also drew attention to the arbitrary base rate of banks, wrong practice of banks in adding premium rate to base rate arbitrarily, obstruction in imports, unreasonable working capital credit guidelines etc.

Business organisations from across the country formed the committee as a collective effort to resolve the problems after the BFIs and regulatory bodies did not take initiatives to resolve the problems despite the organisations drawing the attention of banks and financial institutions to this end.

Gopal Agarwal, general secretary of the Federation of Nepal Electricians informed that the committee held a mass protest program at Maitighar Mandala, Kathmandu on Sunday. The protest was attended by industrialists/businessmen from all over the country.