September 19 : Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has said that its prime focus is currently on addressing cyber security issues in the banking sector.
Speaking with media personnel in the capital yesterday, NRB Governor Chiranjibi Nepal came up with such remarks.
“Curbing the security threats posed to the cyber system of the banks and financial institutions is the greatest challenge today. In this regard, we have already instructed them to adopt measures to ward off such threats.”
He also ruled out the possibility of reviewing the paid-up capital structure of banks immediately.
” The capital structure of banks will not be reviewed further in my tenure, which will end in March next year.”
The Monetary Policy 2015-16 released by the central bank has made it mandatory for commercial banks to raise minimum paid-up capital from Rs two billion to Rs eight billion by mid-July 2017. Similarly, such capital of national-level development banks had been increased from Rs 640 million to Rs 2.5 billion, whereas the paid-up capital of national-level finance companies had been increased from Rs 300 million to Rs 800 million .
It may be noted that a recent study carried out by the World Bank (WB) has recommended the government to raise paid-up capital of banks to increase their lending capacity to infrastructure sector.
