One-third of country’s population use ATM cards

KATHMANDU: More than 33 percent of Nepali citizens today have access to debit cards (ATM), thanks to increasing network of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) across the country and boost in financial literacy.

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) statistics shows that 98,55,221 Nepali citizens have acquired debit cards as of mid-January 2022 (93,99,525 cards by commercial banks, 4,17,846 by development banks and 37,850 by finance companies). Compared to the latest population figure released by the Department of Statistics and the NRB report, 33.76 percent of the population today carry debit cards.

Nepal’s population stands at 2,919,192,480.