Total loans and advances: Rs 85bn
Accounts: 800,000+ ATMs: 101 Branches: 115 Extension counters: 13 Staff: 944 ApEx Interview with Sunil Kumar Pokharel, CEO We hear a lot about mergers these days. Can you please explain what it is and how things are going on with Civil and Himalayan Bank? A merger is a business decision between two or more institutions to create synergy for positive results, both for the institutions and their clients. In simple terms, if two institutions create a profit of Rs 100 each, after the merger, they must take their profit to Rs 300, or at least Rs 250, and should also expand their services among the clients. A merger is also a step toward monopoly. For instance, if two institutions have a share of 10 percent each, the merger will take them to at least 20 percent which means we have more market share. Talking about our merger, it’s going well, I must say. There are a few steps to complete a merger and we have already completed most of them. The most critical part is the terms and conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which we have signed successfully. The next one is a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the central bank and we have already received that. Now, we have made different committees to fill the gaps and manage the number of branches, staffs, and other internal matters. Technically, we are on the safe side as the banking software of both banks are the same. Civil Bank’s card system is already operated in Himalayan Bank’s switch. We aim to finalize everything within this year. Does Nepal Rastra Bank really encourage merger? Yes. The central bank has given certain benefits to the banks for one year if they merge. And the bank should factor in those benefits because it helps to recover the cost of the merging process. I think the central bank is flexible enough to encourage banks to go into a merger. But that doesn’t mean it forces a merger. How did the Civil Bank fight liquidity? We did a very basic thing. Banks rely on deposits but as Nepal’s deposit rate is at negative growth, we didn’t issue loans haphazardly. Since managing Certificates of Deposit (CD) is challenging these days, we have decided not to be aggressive in growing loans as well as not to foul play in soliciting deposits. The ceiling given by the Nepal Rastra Bank is 90 percent yet we kept it around 87 percent. We have to keep this gap to handle surprise withdrawals. The Civil Bank is also introducing a 5-year debenture of Rs 5bn which will further enhance our position. But now things have started looking up. Remittance is growing and international tourists have also increased. Another important factor is the election. Elections often bring cash flow into the market. This doesn’t mean we will be able to issue loans as earlier but things will definitely change for the better from 2023. Your profit increased by three times last year. How did this happen? The more you work in sowing the seeds, the more you get to harvest. We increased our book in the previous years by increasing deposits and loans and we had three times more profit. If we had not increased our portfolio, it would not have been possible. We introduced client-friendly products that encouraged them to bank with us. But this year we have not launched new schemes because all the focus is on the merger. There are a couple of new products which will be launched post-merger. CEO’s profile Sunil Kumar Pokharel has a banking experience of over three decades. He was associated with Standard Chartered Bank for almost two decades and during the period he also worked with Standard Chartered in Afghanistan. Before joining Civil Bank in 2019, he was associated with NIC ASIA Bank, Nabil Bank and AGD Bank and UAB Bank of Myanmar. Pokharel is also a visiting faculty of Kathmandu University School of Management.
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