NDB depositors learnt the lesson hard way, suffer before Dashain

Around 4,000 depositors of Nepal Development Bank (NDB) are troubled ahead of this festive season.
In a bid to get more interest, they had deposited their hard-earned money in a bank that had all along flouted Nepal Rastra Bank’s directives, plunging it into financial woes.
The depositors are clueless when they could get the money back since the matter has gone into a legal loop. The Patan Appellate Court has appointed T R Upadhyaya as an investigation officer on July 29 as per Insolvency Act 2007. He is likely to submit the report in a couple of days.
The Court will decide on the NDB’s fate only after it receives Upadhyaya’s report. The NDB may either be revived or liquidated as per the court’s order.
Though Upadhyaya is following the due procedures, the depositors are but naturally getting restive.
The investigation officer is poring over two capital plans — put forth by Badri Bhattarai and associates and the Nimbus Group, respectively.
The depositors, meanwhile, have come up with a suggestion. They are willing to assist the new investors by not withdrawing their accumulated sum — around Rs 350 million — for the next six months.
“We want the bank to reopen at the earliest. Hence, we’d like to withdraw money in installments,” said Kirti Madan Joshi, president, Nepal Bikash Bank Peedit Sangh. The victims have learnt their lesson the hard way. Reliability is the key and not just the lure of high interest.
Badri Bhattarai — current promoter of NDB — and his group are looking at settling the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) and Non-Banking Assets (NBA) before injecting Rs 240 million as capital. Bhattarai holds 10,000-unit of promoters shares of NDB.
But Nimbus Group and associates plan to buy out the promoters, who have been held responsible for sullying the NDB’s reputation. It also plans to issue rights shares to increase the capital to Rs 640 million by end of next year. The Group has offered the depositors the choice to withdraw their deposit. It is ready to deposit Rs 32 million — 10 per cent of their proposed Rs 320 million capital injection — as and when NRB deems fit.
NDB has only 30 staff on its rolls, which include employees in the Pokhara branch and the head office in Kathmandu. It has around 20,000 shareholders.