NPS-NCS & NEPALPAY Card: Nepal’s National Card Switch Goes Live
1st April 2025, Kathmandu
An official announcement about the infrastructure readiness of NPS-National Card Switch (NPS-NCS) and NEPALPAY Card as domestic card scheme was made today by Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) in an official event organized in the presence of the Respected Governor Mr. Maha Prasad Adhikari as the Chief Guest, Board Members of NRB, members of National Payments Board, senior officials from Nepal Rastra Bank, bank & financial institutions, payment system operators (PSOs), payment service providers (PSPs), Board of Directors of NCHL and the senior officials of NCHL.
NPS-NCS & NEPALPAY Card
The announcement was made as the readiness of NPS-NCS and NEPALPAY Card, corresponding to which NCHL has recently obtained final approval from NRB for the rollout.
An indicative NEPALPAY card was formally unveiled during the event by the Governor, and a transaction under controlled environment was performed using a ceremonial NEPALPAY Card issued by Himalayan Bank and used in the POS and ATM of Machhapuchhre Bank and Siddhartha Bank, respectively.
As part of the NPS infrastructure, NCHL has implemented National Card Switch, centralized settlement & dispute management system, enterprise-level AI/ML-based fraud & risk management system, and NEPALPAY as a domestic card scheme.
This is the key and final milestone in the implementation of NPS, corresponding to which the Retail Payment Switch (RPS) and Cross-border interface (NPIx) have already been implemented since November 2021.
With this readiness of NPS-NCS and NEPALPAY Card, the participating BFIs, PSOs, and PSPs can now initiate integration of their switches for issuing and acquiring the domestic card scheme and for interoperability of other card transactions.
To take the bank engagement forward, a principal membership agreement was also exchanged between NCHL and multiple banks & financial institutions, including Citizens Bank International, Goodwill Finance, Himalayan Bank, Machhapuchhre Bank, Muktinath Bikash Bank, NMB Bank, Prabhu Bank, Shangri-La Development Bank, and Siddhartha Bank in the same event.
NCHL’s own EFT switch, which is supporting 11 BFIs for the processing of multiple international card schemes, has also been announced as ready for acquiring of NEPALPAY card. Other BFIs, PSOs, and PSPs will now be followed up for their onboarding in the EPALPAY network.
NPS-NCS will ensure that the central card switch will be used for interoperability in routing and settlement of domestic card transactions, reduce the cost & dependency in domestic card transactions, implement data localization for domestic transactions, and support innovation in the digital ecosystem with the domestic card scheme.
The NEPALPAY card is based on EMV chip technology and has partnered with one of the international card networks for its international acceptability. Based on the rules and scheme definition, NEPALPAY Card will be issued and acquired by the participating member BFIs and PSPs as its Principal and Associate members, whereas PSOs will build the card ecosystem as third-party payment processors (TPPs).
NEPALPAY Card is the domestic card scheme that will be provided to end customers by the member BFIs and PSPs and can be used in POS or ATM, and at a later stage for eCom transactions and as a virtual card.
NCHL has been providing multiple national payment systems for its member including 54+ BFIs, majority of the PSOs & PSPs and 100+ indirect & technical members. It has been processing transaction of over NRs 15.5 Trillion annually.
For more details: NPS-NCS & NEPALPAY Card
