‘Un-blacklisted borrowers cannot be denied loans’

KATHMANDU, JAN 12 -

Borrowers who have been removed from the blacklist cannot be prevented from getting further loans, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said Sunday.

Issuing a directive, the central bank ordered banks and financial institutions (BFIs) not to deny further loans to individuals who had once been blacklisted for defaulting loans but have subsequently been cleared.  

Many banks including Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) have a policy to turn away borrowers who have a record of having been blacklisted. NRB has told such banks to change their rules allowing past defaulters to obtain fresh credit.

NRB Spokesperson Manamohan Kumar Shrestha said that the central bank had issued the directive after receiving many complaints against the policy.

According to RBB, its policy of not providing loans to anybody who has once been blacklisted was made during the time foreigners were in charge of its management.

Foreign managers had been hired to run RBB when the financial sector reform programme was implemented there in 2003. “We had also been discussing the possibility of changing the policy, or at least removing the restrictions against borrowers who had been blacklisted because they were unable to repay loans due to political reasons or other compulsions,” said RBB Chief Executive Officer Krishna Sharma. “After the NRB’s directive, we will change this credit policy.”

Himalayan Bank CEO Ashoke Rana said that they had been providing loans to people who had been de-listed. “One of our customers had been blacklisted by another bank. After that bank de-listed the customer, we continued providing loans to that borrower,” he added.

Source: The Kathmandu Post