Nepal Rastra Banks asks for list of cross holding shareholders from commercial banks within one week; mandatory merger to be adopted says deputy governor of NRB

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has sent out a letter to all commercial banks demanding the description of cross holding in the bank. Cross holding is referred to when a public traded corporation owns stocks (promoter and public) in another public traded company. The NRB has asked for the cross holding description within a week of sending out the letter.

The letter was sent by the deputy governor of NRB Mr. Chintamani Shivakoti on 16^th Shrawan, 2076. In a program organized, the deputy governor had said that the list of all shareholders having more than 0.1% cross holding has been demanded from commercial banks. He instructed the banks to add shareholding of members of the same family and prepare the said list.

After the list has been received, the deputy governor said that based on the percentage of cross holding, the banks will be mandatorily merged. He mentioned that banks that have issued 25% of paid up capital as debentures having cross holdings will be mandatorily merged.

As per the monetary policy released recently, the banks having fixed percentage of cross holdings will be prioritized for merger. To encourage the banks to merge, the policy will provide five special facilities to banks that merge.