Cooperatives
Savings cooperatives, microfinance and informal credit.
The long view Nepal's cooperative crisis
Nepal Bangladesh Bank: the run, the NRB takeover and the Nabil merger
A 1994 joint venture with two Bangladeshi lenders suffered a run in November 2006, was taken over by Nepal Rastra Bank, recovered under its management and was absorbed by Nabil Bank in 2022.
Prabhu Group's Devi Prakash Bhattachan: from remittances to a bank, and a fraud case still before the court
The chairman who built a money-transfer business into a commercial bank and a life insurer faces a fraud case over unpaid remittance agents, which he denies. Nearly a year after it was filed, no verdict has been reported.
Still on the grey list: what FATF scrutiny means for Nepal's banks and remitters
Assessors say Nepal's bank supervision passes muster; cooperatives, casinos, property and the failure to confiscate criminal assets do not. Here is what the grey list costs, and what would end it.
Governor Poudel bets on cheap money to deliver 7% growth
Nepal's central bank chief, an academic economist, has kept policy loose and asked banks to lend Rs 652bn (about $4.2bn); the borrowers have yet to appear.
Microfinance bad loans pass 10% as a lending model built for the poor strains
Defaults at Nepal's microlenders have jumped, tens of thousands of borrowers are blacklisted, and informal moneylenders charging 'meter byaj', interest that compounds against the borrower, remain the alternative.
How Nepal's savings cooperatives became shadow banks, and who is being paid back
Cooperatives took deposits like banks but were overseen like clubs; the 23 the federal government has declared troubled owe Rs 46bn to some 76,000 savers, and refunds that began in May cover a small fraction.
GB Rai, Gorkha Media and the cooperative savings still caught up in court
A parliamentary committee said cooperative savings reached GB Rai's television company. He remains abroad, the heaviest charges were dropped in May 2026, and the cooperative fraud charges have not been tested in court.