Kathmandu. In recent times, banks have been under pressure due to sluggishness in loan flow and accumulation of deposits. Due to this, banks have reached the point of not being able to bear the operating expenses.
This is the reason why commercial banks have started reducing the facilities given to the customers. They have started announcing the cancellation of insurance facilities to reduce operating expenses and account costs.
The latest example of this is Sanima Bank. The bank has removed the insurance facility of various savings accounts (Golden Savings Account, Sanima Super Saving, Sanima Family Super Savings and Sanima Longevity Salary Account) with effect from October 14.
Not only Sanima Bank, other banks are curtailing such facilities. The banks have been providing accident insurance, health insurance insurance and life insurance of Rs 1 lakh to the customers of fixed deposits and savings and fixed deposit accounts with a minimum deposit of Rs 10,000 or more.
Guru Prasad Poudel, spokesperson of the Nepal Rastra Bank, said that the insurance facility provided in savings accounts may have been reduced due to the increase in operating expenses of banks. “Now, the customer may be interested about the duration of the insurance facility while opening the account or the customer may have a negative view when the facility is suddenly withdrawn,” he said, “We will talk to the banks and financial institutions about this issue and try to solve the problem by finding out the reality.” ’
However, spokesperson Poudel said that the provision of insurance facility has already been removed from the bank. “If some banks had provided insurance facility before the NRB removed this issue, then we will talk about it,” he said.
