खराब कर्जा असुली सुस्ताउँदा बैंकहरूको गैरबैंकिङ सम्पत्ति झन्डै ४६ अर्बSluggish bad-loan recovery pushes banks' non-banking assets toward Rs 46 billion

KATHMANDU — As the recovery of bad loans slows, non-banking assets are piling up on the books of commercial banks. According to Nepal Rastra Bank figures for the first 10 months (Shrawan to Baisakh) of the current fiscal year 2082/83, such assets at the 19 commercial banks — Standard Chartered aside — have climbed 19.51 percent in a year to Rs 45.99 billion. In the same period a year earlier, the figure stood at Rs 38.49 billion.

Over these 10 months, non-banking assets rose at 12 banks, while seven — Global IME, NIC Asia, Nabil, Kumari, Machhapuchchhre, Everest and Rastriya Banijya — managed to bring them down.

The largest pile of non-banking assets sits with Himalayan Bank. Up 18.09 percent from a year ago, the bank now carries such assets worth Rs 6.06 billion. Global IME Bank follows in second place with Rs 5.90 billion, though its figure has actually shrunk by 0.94 percent. The numbers for third-placed Prime Commercial Bank, however, stand out sharply — a 110.86 percent jump in a single year has lifted its non-banking assets to Rs 5 billion.

Nepal Investment Mega Bank ranks fourth with Rs 4.65 billion and NIC Asia Bank fifth with Rs 4.19 billion. Below them come Nabil (about Rs 3.51 billion), Kumari (Rs 2.46 billion), Laxmi Sunrise (Rs 2.40 billion) and NMB (around Rs 2 billion). Prabhu, Citizens International, Agriculture Development, Nepal SBI, Sanima and Siddhartha banks each hold non-banking assets in the range of roughly Rs 1 billion to Rs 2 billion.

In percentage terms, the steepest increases after Prime Commercial were recorded at NMB Bank (60.88 percent), Citizens International (52.15), Nepal SBI (51.34), Prabhu (50.58) and Nepal Investment Mega (49.37).

Among those that trimmed their holdings, Machhapuchchhre Bank saw the sharpest fall at 33.63 percent, followed by Everest (20.16 percent) and NIC Asia (8.90).

At the bottom of the list, Nepal Bank carries the smallest amount — non-banking assets worth just Rs 234 million, which is nonetheless 14.47 percent higher than a year ago. Standard Chartered Bank, by contrast, reports no such assets at all.

Non-banking assets are the immovable property a bank takes onto its own books when a borrower defaults and the pledged collateral cannot be recovered. A rise in such assets points, on one hand, to weakening loan recovery and, on the other, to bank capital being tied up in unproductive holdings.