Kathmandu. Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) has celebrated its 17th anniversary on December 22. Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra graced the occasion in the presence of Executive Directors of Nepal Rastra Bank, President of Nepal Bankers’ Association, Vice President of Development Bankers’ Association, President of Nepal Financial Institutions Association, former Presidents of NCACH, current President and Directors of Nepal Rastra Bank.
Also present on the occasion were officials from the Ministry of Finance, various agencies of the Government of Nepal, Department of Immigration, senior officials of Nepal Rastra Bank, chiefs of banks and financial institutions, PSPs and PSOs, among others.
NCHL, which came into operation on December 8, 2005 under the aegis of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to establish multiple national payment, clearing and settlement systems, has started NCHL ECC in 2068 BS to digitize manual cheque clearing in the initial day and later as per the strategy of Nepal Rastra Bank. Over the past 17 years, NCHL has been implementing and operating NCHL-ECC, NCHL-IPS, Retail Payment Switch, connectIPS, CORPORATEPAY, connectRTGS, National Payments Interface (NPI), NEPALPAY QR, NPIx/EFT Card Switch. Currently, under the National Payment Switch (NPS), it has also done the commercial roll-out of the National Card Switch and the NEPALPAY Card.
On the occasion, NCHL awarded Chhabi Sapkota, Head Payment System (HPS) who completed 10 years with the Dirgha Seva Medal for their dedication to the company. On the occasion, Anil Keshari Shah and Ashok Shumsher JBR, former presidents of NCHL, were felicitated by the Deputy Governor in recognition of their invaluable contribution and guidance to the establishment of NCHL as the founding chairman and third chairman of NCHL Board of Directors.
NCHL also unveiled various innovative digital products and solutions on the occasion. Siddhartha Bank Ltd. Nabil Bank Limited has partnered with Nabil Bank Ltd, a digital mobile banking solution for retail customers. In association with Corporate Pay 2.0, Machhapuchchhre Bank Ltd. Third Parties Net Settlement has been launched in collaboration with Card Central System and Smart Choice Technology.
On the occasion, NCHL honored 13 banks and financial institutions, payment service providers, government entities and non-banks under different categories of ‘Excellence in Digital Transactions’. Rastriya Banijya Bank, Garima Bikas Bank and Reliance Finance were awarded with the ‘Excellence in NepalPay QR Transactions’ award by Rastriya Banijya Bank, Development Bank and Finance Company respectively. Similarly, Siddhartha Bank was awarded with “Excellence in EFT Card Services” Award.
Global IME Bank has been awarded with the “Excellence in Alternate Digital Channel” Award. Nabil Bank has bagged the prestigious award for “Excellence in Digitizing Business with CorporatePay”. The Special Recognition Award has been given to Rastriya Banijya Bank for its role in digitizing the expenses and revenue transactions of the Government of Nepal and to the Department of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs in recognition of its role in enabling the international card payment gateway for online payment of e-visa.
NCHL has over 54 BFIs as its members and over 100 non-bank institutions as its technical members. During the last FY, NCHL had settled more than Rs. 186 trillion in payment transactions through NCHL’s systems. This number increased by 67% in terms of number of payment transactions and 19% in terms of transaction volume.
