NCHL Hosts EFT Card BFI Interaction Program to Enhance Security and NEPALPAY Integration
25th September 2026, Kathmandu
Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) held an interaction program with 22 member banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to strengthen EFT card services, discuss payment security, and expand digital payment infrastructure. With 7 new BFIs added to the EFT Card Switch, NCHL now powers 17 institutions and captures a 25% market share with NPR 255 billion in card transactions. Learn how NCHL is advancing NEPALPAY Cards and safe online payment gateways across Nepal.
EFT Card BFI Interaction Program
NCHL has organized an interaction program with its EFT Card Services member banks and financial institutions (BFIs), bringing together representatives from 22 member BFIs and senior NCHL officials to strengthen the relationship, provide updates on operational requirements and new initiatives, and collate feedback on its EFT services and products.
The interaction program provided a platform for the member BFIs and NCHL to exchange views, feedback, and insights on customer expectations, technology developments, and operational requirements. The interaction focused on strengthening security, operational matters, and innovations in card payments.
The program also marked the expansion of the EFT Card service membership, with 2 new commercial banks and 5 new finance companies onboarded as the EFT Card Switch members. With this addition, 17 BFIs are not within the network of NCHL’s EFT Card Switch, while 6 BFIs are members of its E-commerce payment gateway service and 14 BFIs are using its 3D Secure ACS services.
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EFT Card services of NCHL are the centralized switching solution offered to the BFIs for processing of card transactions, including card issuance and acquiring of various national and international card schemes. Currently, issuance is done for Visa and NEPALPAY cards, whereas acquiring is done for 8 major national and international networks including Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, Diners Club, Discover, Pulse, RuPay, and NEPALPAY.
In FY 2082/83, Nepal’s card market recorded approximately 129 million transactions, with transaction value of NPR 1,019 billion and 14.33 million cards in circulation. NCHL EFT accounted for approximately 32 million transactions, with NPR 255 billion in transaction value and 3.44 million cards in circulation, representing 25% of market share. Its 3D Secure ACS, a secure authentication of online card transactions and an E-commerce payment gateway, enables online merchants to accept card payments through participating BFIs. The service currently has 6 member BFIs who have acquired over 115 merchants.
As part of its broader vision to strengthen Nepal’s domestic payment infrastructure and promote greater use, NCHL has introduced the NEPALPAY Card scheme as the national card scheme, which is part of the National Payment Switch (NPS). The EFT Card Switch has been integrated with NPS and upgraded to support both the issuance and acceptance of NEPALPAY Cards, enabling participating BFIs to leverage their existing infrastructure for issuance and acquiring.
NCHL will continue collaborating with BFIs, ecosystem partners and international networks to expand card payment capabilities, strengthen interoperability and promote secure and innovative payment solutions.
For more: EFT Card BFI Interaction Program
