16th October 2025, Kathmandu
In a significant move that underscores its commitment to digital transformation, NIC ASIA Bank has forged a strategic alliance with Asian Buddha Hotel in Siddharthanagar, Rupandehi, to incentivize the use of digital payments.
NIC Asia Partners with Asian Buddha
This collaboration, announced on October 15, 2025, extends a 15% discount to the bank’s customers on hotel services when payments are exclusively processed through digital banking channels. By linking a tangible benefit—a substantial discount—directly to digital transactions, the partnership serves as a powerful localized catalyst, actively promoting the adoption and habitual use of the bank’s varied digital payment suite. This initiative aligns with the national push toward a cashless economy, demonstrating how the financial and hospitality sectors can work in tandem to drive meaningful behavioral change in consumer financial practices across Nepal.
Strategic Importance of the Collaboration
The partnership between NIC ASIA Bank and a prominent regional establishment like Asian Buddha Hotel is a microcosm of the broader effort to digitize Nepal’s economy, particularly outside major metropolitan centers. Rupandehi, an important area in Nepal’s Lumbini Province, plays a key role in both tourism and commerce. Securing a merchant like Asian Buddha Hotel, which caters to both local and international visitors, provides a high-visibility, high-volume platform for digital transactions. This is critical for several reasons:
- Behavioral Nudge for Digital Adoption: The attractive 15% discount acts as a direct financial incentive, encouraging customers who might otherwise prefer cash to choose digital methods like the MoBank app or their NIC ASIA debit, credit, or prepaid cards. This repeated use helps build familiarity and trust in digital banking tools.
- Expanding Merchant Acceptance: The hotel’s willingness to offer this discount through digital channels signals to other local businesses the value of adopting digital payment infrastructure. As more consumers seek out the discount, the hotel—and by extension, the entire region—will see an increased volume of cashless payments, thereby expanding the overall digital payment ecosystem.
- Geographic Digital Inclusion: While digital payments thrive in urban centers like Kathmandu, extending such compelling offers in regional hubs like Rupandehi is essential for ensuring that the transition to a cashless society is inclusive and reaches customers and businesses nationwide. It helps to bridge the digital divide and fosters financial inclusion by making electronic transactions a viable and rewarding option for a wider populace.
This strategic collaboration exemplifies the bank’s ongoing strategy of partnering with key lifestyle and service providers—a tactic seen in other agreements with entities like Lemon Tree Premier and Landmark Hotels—to deepen the usage of its secure digital channels in customers’ daily lives.
The Role of NIC ASIA’s Digital Payment Channels
The partnership specifically targets payments made using NIC ASIA’s core digital channels, reinforcing their utility and security for everyday transactions. These channels represent the bank’s complete ecosystem designed for a modern, cashless experience:
MoBank Mobile Banking Application
The MoBank app is NIC ASIA’s flagship digital platform and a crucial tool in this partnership. It enables customers to conduct a wide range of secure, real-time banking activities from their smartphones. For the Asian Buddha Hotel discount, customers can easily complete a transaction via the app’s services, which often include QR code payment (Scan and Pay) functionalities. MoBank is a member of the Fonepay network, making it a highly accessible and convenient method for instant merchant payments. By using a secure channel that often employs 128-bit SSL encryption, customers gain not only convenience but also peace of mind.
Debit, Credit, and Prepaid Cards
The physical and virtual cards issued by NIC ASIA Bank, powered by networks like VISA, are essential for point-of-sale (POS) transactions at the hotel.
- Debit Cards: Offer direct linkage to the customer’s bank account, providing a secure and traceable alternative to cash withdrawal and immediate payment at the hotel’s POS terminals.
- Credit Cards: Provide customers with flexibility and an additional layer of payment security, allowing for larger transactions required for accommodation and other high-value services.
- Prepaid Cards: Serve as a budgeting and safety tool, allowing customers to pre-load funds specifically for use at merchant outlets.
These card options, especially those equipped with EMV/Chip technology and contactless features, offer a swift and robust payment experience, which is further sweetened by the 15% discount, making them the preferred mode of payment over traditional cash.
Driving the Cashless Economy in Nepal
The core vision of this and similar partnerships is to accelerate Nepal’s journey towards a cashless economy. The benefits of this transition are extensive, touching consumers, businesses, and the government:
- For Consumers: Digital payments offer unparalleled convenience by eliminating the need to carry physical cash and reducing time spent in queues for bill payments or bank visits. They provide an enhanced level of security as transactions are encrypted, and lost cards can be instantly blocked, protecting funds more effectively than carrying a large wallet of cash. The immediate tracking capabilities of apps like MoBank also allow for better financial management and budgeting.
- For Businesses (Like Asian Buddha Hotel): Adopting digital payments leads to lower operational costs by reducing the time and resources associated with cash handling, such as counting, storage, and frequent bank deposits. It significantly improves financial transparency and simplifies accounting, creating clear, auditable transaction records. The ability to offer discounts tied to digital payments also acts as a powerful marketing tool to attract and retain customers in a competitive market.
- For the National Economy: A move toward a cashless system helps combat tax evasion and corruption by creating a digital audit trail for transactions, thereby improving tax compliance and government revenue collection. Furthermore, by formalizing transactions, digital payments boost financial inclusion, extending accessible financial services to the unbanked and underbanked populations, particularly in remote areas connected by mobile networks. This is a critical step for modernizing the country’s payment systems, enhancing overall economic efficiency, and supporting the goals set by regulators like Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
In conclusion, the NIC ASIA Bank and Asian Buddha Hotel collaboration is a highly effective, market-driven mechanism. It delivers immediate, tangible value to bank customers while simultaneously fulfilling a larger, national objective: the mass adoption of digital financial tools to establish a thriving, transparent, and resilient cashless economy in Nepal.
For More: NIC Asia Partners with Asian Buddha