21st May 2021, Kathmandu
Nepal Digital Payments Company Ltd. (NDPC), a joint venture of Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd. and Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd., agreed with Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) to expand the digital payments ecosystem in Nepal. The agreement was signed by Mr. Krishna Prasad Bhandari, CEO of NDPC. And Mr. Neelesh Man Singh Pradhan, CEO of NCHL.
NDPC will be using NCHL’s National Payments Interface (NPI) as a single channel for interconnection with multiple underlying core systems, including connect-IPS and NCHL-IPS systems, corresponding to which NDPC will have access to the banks & financial institutions. This will help initiate transactions and facilitate its settlements for various business use cases on a real-time and deferred basis. In contrast, NDPC will focus on expanding digital financial services to rural areas to cover the banked and unbanked population.
The agreement between NDPC as a telecom-led entity and NCHL as a BFIs led entity is a key milestone in the digital payments ecosystem for Nepal that is expected to strengthen the digital initiatives further as outlined by the Government of Nepal under the Digital Nepal Framework and the policies of Nepal Rastra Bank. The wallet service that NDPC will be operating shortly for mobile financial services is currently in the testing phase and once live, the service can be used through both online and offline media as well as by the feature phone users too. For this, NDPC has recently obtained a license from Nepal Rastra Bank to operate as a Payment Service Provider through “NamastePay.”
NDPC is a public limited company, jointly founded by Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd. (Nepal Telecom), the largest telecom service provider in Nepal, and Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd., which is one of the largest public-sector commercial banks in Nepal. This is expected to have an amalgamated strength of both reach, penetration, and expertise in banking &financial services. This unique combination aims to operate mobile financial services to provide digital financial services to the general public and help realize the national goal of digital society.
NCHL has been operating NCHL-ECC, NCHL-IPS, connect-IPS e-Payment, connect-RTGS, National Payments Interface (NPI), and CORPORATEPAY as Payment System Operator (PSO) national payment systems, with the participation of over 63 BFIs as direct members and over 58 non-bank institutions as indirect/ technical members. NCHL has been providing its payment system infrastructure and facilitating BFIs, PSPs, PSOs, Govt/Semi-Govt. Entities insurance companies, remittances, merchant banks, etc., to support the digital payments ecosystem.
For more information, visit www.nchl.com.np.