News Summary
Editorially Reviewed.
- On the occasion of its 42nd anniversary, Nabil Bank announced the beginning of the AI era in banking and expanded the use of artificial intelligence in its services.
- Chairman Nirvana Chaudhary emphasized that AI is not a replacement for employees but a supportive technology that helps deliver faster and more transparent banking services to customers.
- The bank has strengthened its digital transformation by offering tech-friendly services such as Nepal-India cross-border remittances, digital lounges, and automated loan processing through the NBank app.
6 Shrawan, Kathmandu – A few years ago, obtaining a loan from a bank felt like a test of patience.
Even for small loans, one had to visit the bank branch and go through lengthy procedures. Filling out forms, submitting citizenship and other documents, and registering all details was mandatory. Moreover, the process often took up to a week to complete.
Today, none of this is necessary. You don’t have to visit a branch nor spend much time; with just a few clicks on a mobile device, the loan amount is credited to your account.
This is due to Nabil Bank’s adoption of AI, or artificial intelligence, in its services. By leveraging rapidly advancing technology, the bank has been delivering state-of-the-art services through modern banking and has increased AI usage not only in lending but across various service aspects. This saves customers’ time and makes services more convenient.
On the occasion of its 42nd anniversary, Nabil Bank chairman Nirvana Chaudhary announced that the bank has entered the AI era. He remarked that AI represents the most significant transformative phase in banking history, making its utilization indispensable. AI is not just a basic tool but a means to redefine decision-making, risk management, business operations, and the customer’s financial experience.
“The bank uses AI not as a substitute for employees but as an assistive technology,” Chairman Chaudhary stated. “AI handles repetitive and time-consuming tasks, enabling staff to dedicate more time to direct customer service and financial advice.”
Starting in 2083 BS, the bank has redefined its mission, goals, and values with the vision of becoming “Nepal’s most trusted, reliable, and future-ready bank.” It has identified trust, transparency, talent, technology, and transformation as core pillars, with a strong commitment to customer-centric service, artificial intelligence, digital innovation, good governance, sustainability, and leadership development.
Moreover, Nabil Bank’s self-service kiosks, launched in November 2023, have greatly eased customer convenience by allowing banking services without direct employee assistance.
Particularly, facilities such as ECC clearing cheque kiosk enable customers to deposit cheques in a faster, simpler, and organized manner, reducing branch crowding and wait times. Customers can easily deposit checks through a user-friendly machine interface.
The bank has further expanded digital banking by introducing Nepal-India-Nepal cross-border person-to-person remittance services, allowing immediate and secure fund transfers between the two countries through digital channels.
Indian citizens with accounts in Nabil Bank can instantly send money to family or friends in India via the NBank mobile app, while Nepali and Indian users can conveniently remit funds to Nabil Bank users in Nepal.
Additionally, investment services on the NBank platform have been broadened through collaboration with Nabil Investment Banking, enabling customers to register for and pay installments for Systematic Investment Plans and access other investment services on mobile without additional fees. This facilitates the participation of Nepalese living abroad in Nepal’s financial markets.
Located in Kamaladi, the bank’s state-of-the-art digital lounge is operational, offering 24/7 services such as ATM cash withdrawal, cash deposit from cash deposit machines, and digital cheque deposits through kiosks. Following the main office and Itahari branch, this digital lounge reduces dependence on traditional counters, reinforcing the strategy to expand technology-friendly, streamlined, and integrated digital banking services.
According to Nabil Bank, all operations are currently being transformed into data-driven, algorithm-based, and automated systems. AI technology analyzes customers’ financial information, history, income, loan repayment capacity, and risk indicators to generate decision bases within seconds.
This modernization makes banking not only faster but also more accurate, transparent, and customer-friendly. For instance, the bank’s phone loan service uses AI-driven decision analytics to automate loan approval, evaluating a customer’s financial profile almost instantly to determine eligibility.
Nabil Bank has prioritized technology adoption since its founding in 1984, when it became Nepal’s first computerized bank. Over its more than four decades of operation, it has continuously embraced technology. The bank also employs robotic process automation, which executes numerous tasks via software bots, increasing efficiency, minimizing human errors, and accelerating service delivery.
Using business intelligence systems, the bank analyzes customer behavior, transaction patterns, and service usage to identify customer needs and opportunities for new product development and service improvements.
Another major achievement in digital transformation is NBank, a digital banking platform launched in 2022 that introduced a new concept of neo-banking in Nepal. With the NBank app, customers can open new accounts in about 30 seconds, quickly obtain loans against fixed deposits, and receive remittances via card. This platform enables many banking services without the need to visit branches, making it especially convenient for the youth and digital-savvy customers.
The bank plans to place AI at the center of NBank’s future development to make banking services smarter and more personalized. This aims to facilitate faster loan disbursement, superior risk management, intelligent customer experiences, widespread financial inclusion, and robust security systems.
New platforms such as the core banking system, omni-channel manager, business process management, and loan origination system have digitized most of the bank’s processes. From loan application to approval, limit setting, and disbursement, all stages are integrated into a single digital system.
