The number of credit cards issued by commercial banks has risen massively in the past year.According to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), 20,278 new credit cards were handed out during the period mid-January 2013 to mid-January 2014.
The central bank has allowed only commercial banks to issue credit cards. The total number of cards issued as of mid-January 2014 has reached 54,064.The growth in the issue of credit cards contrasts with the trend in the previous year when the number of cards issued dropped by 5,117 as of mid-January 2012.
“I am not certain whether the issuance of credit cards increased on such a big scale, but I can say that we have issued a relatively higher number of credit cards in 2013,” said Diwakar Poudel, head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, which leads the credit card market.
Standard Chartered, Nabil Bank, Himalayan Bank and Nepal Investment Bank are major players in the credit card market in the country. Poudel said that growing urbanization and an increasing card culture among the people had helped credit card issuance to rise lately. According to him, Standard Chartered issued around 1,700 credit cards during 2013 and the total number of such cards issued by the bank stands at around 14,000.
“We have been promoting the card culture here, and encourage people who take hire purchase loans and home loans to obtain credit cards too,” said Poudel. Although there a few big players in the credit card market, a lot of banks have started offering credit cards nowadays. “An increase in the number of banks offering credit cards might be the reason why the number of credit cards issued has surged over the last one year,” said Rajan Amatya, deputy general manager at Nepal Investment Bank Limited (NIBL).
He added that although many banks were giving priority to distributing credit cards nowadays, they were a bit conservative in the matter because of the risks involved. “People have a tendency of not repaying the loans offered through credit cards on time,” he said. According to him, NIBL has given out around 2,000 credit cards. He said that they were witnessing increased demand for such cards. As a sign of the swelling card culture in the country, there has been a surge too in the number of debit cards issued over the last one year. Central bank stats show that a total of 757,358 new debit cards were issued from mid-January 2013 to mid-January 2014. The total number of debit cards issued by commercial banks , development banks and finance companies has reached 3.75 million as of mid-January this year.
During the preceding one year period, a total of 339,400 new debit cards were issued. “People’s daily need for cash is usually fulfilled by withdrawals from ATMs, and they usually use debit cards instead of visiting their banks to withdraw money by writing a cheque,” said Amatya
.
Obtaining a debit card when opening a new account has been the general trend in recent years. According to Amatya, one-third of all the depositors at NIBL have opened an account by depositing Rs 1 and they do not get a cheque book.Over the last one year, a total of 1.44 million new deposit accounts were added, and the total number of deposit accounts with A, B and C class financial institutions has reached 12.13 million, according to NRB.
plastic money gaining popularity
Mid-Jan 2013 Mid-Jan 2014
No of Credit cards 33,786 54,064
No of Debit cards 29,98,127 37,55,485
No of Deposit accounts 1,06,88,462 1,21,31,298
Source:NRB
news source: the kathmandu post,28 feb 2014
LINK
The central bank has allowed only commercial banks to issue credit cards. The total number of cards issued as of mid-January 2014 has reached 54,064.The growth in the issue of credit cards contrasts with the trend in the previous year when the number of cards issued dropped by 5,117 as of mid-January 2012.
“I am not certain whether the issuance of credit cards increased on such a big scale, but I can say that we have issued a relatively higher number of credit cards in 2013,” said Diwakar Poudel, head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered Bank Nepal, which leads the credit card market.
Standard Chartered, Nabil Bank, Himalayan Bank and Nepal Investment Bank are major players in the credit card market in the country. Poudel said that growing urbanization and an increasing card culture among the people had helped credit card issuance to rise lately. According to him, Standard Chartered issued around 1,700 credit cards during 2013 and the total number of such cards issued by the bank stands at around 14,000.
“We have been promoting the card culture here, and encourage people who take hire purchase loans and home loans to obtain credit cards too,” said Poudel. Although there a few big players in the credit card market, a lot of banks have started offering credit cards nowadays. “An increase in the number of banks offering credit cards might be the reason why the number of credit cards issued has surged over the last one year,” said Rajan Amatya, deputy general manager at Nepal Investment Bank Limited (NIBL).
He added that although many banks were giving priority to distributing credit cards nowadays, they were a bit conservative in the matter because of the risks involved. “People have a tendency of not repaying the loans offered through credit cards on time,” he said. According to him, NIBL has given out around 2,000 credit cards. He said that they were witnessing increased demand for such cards. As a sign of the swelling card culture in the country, there has been a surge too in the number of debit cards issued over the last one year. Central bank stats show that a total of 757,358 new debit cards were issued from mid-January 2013 to mid-January 2014. The total number of debit cards issued by commercial banks , development banks and finance companies has reached 3.75 million as of mid-January this year.
During the preceding one year period, a total of 339,400 new debit cards were issued. “People’s daily need for cash is usually fulfilled by withdrawals from ATMs, and they usually use debit cards instead of visiting their banks to withdraw money by writing a cheque,” said Amatya
.
Obtaining a debit card when opening a new account has been the general trend in recent years. According to Amatya, one-third of all the depositors at NIBL have opened an account by depositing Rs 1 and they do not get a cheque book.Over the last one year, a total of 1.44 million new deposit accounts were added, and the total number of deposit accounts with A, B and C class financial institutions has reached 12.13 million, according to NRB.
plastic money gaining popularity
Mid-Jan 2013 Mid-Jan 2014
No of Credit cards 33,786 54,064
No of Debit cards 29,98,127 37,55,485
No of Deposit accounts 1,06,88,462 1,21,31,298
Source:NRB
news source: the kathmandu post,28 feb 2014
LINK
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