It has been agreed that there will be three directors each from Laxmi Bank and Sunrise Bank on the board of the new entity. Motilal Dugar, Malchand Dugar and Bachhraj Tater will be appointed from Sunrise Bank while Raman Nepal, Swati Roongta and Manish Thapa will represent Laxmi Bank in the merged entity.
Currently, the paid-up capital of Laxmi Bank is Rs 11.55bn and Sunrise Bank is Rs 10.11bn. After the merger, the paid-up capital will increase to Rs 21.65bn. Both banks had signed a merger MoU in the second week of January this year. Following this, a merger committee, comprising four members (two each from both banks) has been formed to finalize the merger. The total number of commercial banks in the country will come down to 20 from the current 21 once Laxmi and Sunrise begin their unified business. The total number of commercial banks that had reached a high of 32 in 2014. In terms of banking consolidation, the first half of FY 2022/23 was historic. The first six months of the current fiscal year saw three mergers and one acquisition in the banking sector. Kumari Bank and NCC Bank started unified business on Jan 1. The second week of January saw two mergers and one acquisition becoming successful in the Nepali banking sector; the Global IME Bank and Bank of Kathmandu merged and commenced their unified business and Prabhu Bank acquired Century Commercial Bank. Nepal Investment Bank and Mega Bank completed their merger and commenced business as Nepal Investment Mega Bank.
