The past two years have not been easy for Nepal’s banks. In 2015, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake killed about 9000 Nepalese citizens (and injured many thousands more). Five months later, India closed its border with the country and stopped all imports, including basic goods such as fuel, from entering Nepal for as many months. “We had a 7.9 [magnitude] earthquake and then a 9.9 earthquake,” says Joseph Silvanus, CEO of Standard Chartered Nepal, referring to the border blockade.
Two years later, the Nepal banking sector has bounced back. But today’s challenges are more systemic, including policy unpredictability, overbanking and vulnerability to cyber attacks, which resulted in an attempted $4.4m heist targeting NIC Asia Bank in October.
