Opening and Operating a Corporate Bank Account

What the bank asks for

There is no gazette notice setting out what a bank must see before it opens a company account. The requirement is generated by the bank, under a policy its board approves, to discharge duties imposed on the bank by the Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act 2064 (2008), the Rules 2073 (2016) made under it, and the anti-money-laundering chapter of the NRB Unified Directives. The penalties for getting it wrong fall on the bank and on named officers. The predictable result is that banks ask for more than any rule requires, and that two banks will ask for different things.

Rastriya Banijya Bank, the largest state-owned commercial bank, publishes its policy. For a domestic company it lists the registration certificate, any sectoral licence, the certificate to commence business and renewal certificates; the permanent account number certificate; the memorandum and articles of association; tax clearance; audited financial statements; the board minute authorising the account and naming signatories; any power of attorney; and citizenship certificates and photographs of directors and account operators. That list is a reasonable baseline for what any Nepali bank will want. It is not a ceiling.

Customer risk rating

The same policy sorts customers into high, medium and low risk. Low risk covers government bodies, other banks, and pension and social security accounts. High risk covers politically exposed persons, sanctioned parties, cash-intensive businesses, multi-layered corporate structures, high net worth individuals and high-value wire transfer customers. Everything else is medium.

A newly incorporated, foreign-owned subsidiary with an offshore parent lands in or near the high-risk band almost by construction. It is multi-layered, it has no operating history, and its funding will arrive as an inbound wire from another jurisdiction. Enhanced due diligence then applies, which in practice means identifying the beneficial owner behind the shareholder — the same published policy uses a 10 percent shareholding trigger — and obtaining senior management approval for the relationship rather than branch-level approval.

For a group with a holding company in one jurisdiction, an intermediate vehicle in a second and ultimate owners in a third, this is the step that consumes weeks. The bank will want the corporate documents of each layer, certified and often notarised or apostilled, and it will want them to reconcile with the shareholding recorded in the Nepali company’s own filings at the Office of the Company Registrar. Any mismatch is where files stall: a nominee holding, a shareholder change not yet filed, a parent name that differs between the Nepali approval and the offshore certificate.

Getting the order right

Foreign investors regularly discover that the account is the last thing that can be arranged and the first thing that everything else depends on.

The order that works runs like this. Obtain the foreign investment approval from the approving body. Register the company at the Office of the Company Registrar. Obtain the permanent account number from the Inland Revenue Department. Then open the account, and then remit. Under the Foreign Investment and Foreign Loan Management Bylaw 2078, the investor gives written notice to NRB before remitting, and the investment must be recorded with NRB within six months of the foreign currency reaching Nepal. Recording requires evidence of the inward remittance through the banking system and updated shareholder records from the Company Registrar.

Money that arrives before the account exists, or into the wrong account, or from a remitter whose name does not match the approved investor, creates a defect that is not fixed at the time and is not noticed until repatriation. That failure mode is set out in cross-border money, and it is the strongest argument for treating account opening as a critical-path item rather than an administrative one.

Operating the account

Two features of day-to-day operation surprise newcomers.

The first is that the deposit guarantee does not protect the company. The Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund, established under the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund Act 2073 (2016), guarantees deposits up to NPR 500,000 per natural individual depositor per member institution, combining savings and fixed deposits, with member institutions paying a 0.16 percent premium. Corporate balances are outside the scheme entirely. A treasurer holding operating cash in Nepal is taking unsecured exposure to a single bank, which makes counterparty selection and balance-splitting a real decision rather than a formality. Prudential standing by class of institution is covered in capital adequacy and prudential requirements.

The second is that ongoing due diligence never stops. Reporting entities, which under FIU-Nepal’s own description include banks, money changers and remittance companies, insurers, securities intermediaries, the Employees Provident Fund, Citizen Investment Trust and Social Security Fund, and cooperatives, must file threshold transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports under guidelines that FIU-Nepal updated in July 2025. Periodic KYC refresh is a condition of continued operation, and accounts do get frozen for non-response. A company whose authorised signatories are non-resident directors who visit twice a year should expect this to become an operational problem at some point.

Gaps in the public record

Three things a finance team wants, and we cannot responsibly supply.

There is no published service standard for account opening. NRB sets decision deadlines for several of its own approvals, fifteen working days for a foreign loan approval under the Foreign Investment and Foreign Loan Management Bylaw among them, but account opening is a commercial act by a private institution and no equivalent turnaround obligation was found. Timelines quoted by advisers are observations rather than entitlements, and a company that has been told “three days” should read that as three days after the file is complete, with completeness defined by the bank.

The cash reporting threshold is stated inconsistently. Bank policy documents in circulation give different figures, and FIU-Nepal’s current Threshold Transaction Reporting Guidelines, updated in July 2025, were not obtained. A figure that determines whether a routine payment generates a regulatory filing is not something to take from a secondary summary, so we omit it.

Foreign currency account eligibility for a resident company is governed by the foreign exchange circulars rather than by the Unified Directives, and the position differs by the source of the currency. Export proceeds, foreign investment, foreign loan and service income are not treated alike. The current consolidated circular was not read in full. A company that expects to hold convertible currency in Nepal should establish eligibility with its bank in writing before assuming it.

Subsidiary or branch

A wholly owned subsidiary registered at the Office of the Company Registrar and a branch or liaison office of a foreign company are not the same customer. The subsidiary has its own memorandum, its own permanent account number and its own shareholder register, and the due diligence chain runs upward from it. A branch has no separate legal personality, so the bank is onboarding the foreign company itself, and will ask for that company’s constitutional documents, board resolution and audited accounts in their original form. Groups that assume a branch is the lighter option because it involves less local incorporation frequently find the banking step heavier.

Why requirements are tightening

Nepal was placed under FATF increased monitoring on 21 February 2025. The June 2026 statement recorded meaningful progress on 9 of the 15 items in Nepal’s action plan, with the remaining 6 only partially implemented as at January 2026, and specifically flagged risk-based supervision of commercial banks, higher-risk cooperatives and casinos as a deficiency. Supervisory pressure of that kind travels straight through to front-line account opening. Banks under examination for weak customer due diligence do not respond by relaxing it.

The realistic planning assumption for a foreign-owned entity is that the account will take longer than the company registration did, that the bank will ask for documents nobody mentioned at the outset, and that the fastest route through is a complete, internally consistent ownership file assembled before the first meeting rather than after the first request.

Sources

1. Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act, 2064 (2008)

   Government of Nepal · 2008, as amended — in force · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: The statutory basis for customer identification, record-keeping and reporting duties owed by banks and financial institutions.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

2. AML/CFT Policy and Procedures 2074 (amended 2081)

   Rastriya Banijya Bank Limited · Amended 2081 (2024/25) · Tier 4 — Audited disclosure / filing

   Supports: The documents a state-owned commercial bank requires from an institutional customer, the 10 percent beneficial ownership trigger, and the three-tier customer risk rating with its high-risk categories.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

3. Financial Intelligence Unit — reporting entities and guidelines

   Nepal Rastra Bank, FIU-Nepal · Threshold and Suspicious Transaction Reporting Guidelines updated July 2025; Annual Report 2081/82 published 13 January 2026 · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: That banks, money changers, remittance companies, insurers, securities intermediaries, pension funds and cooperatives are all reporting entities, and that separate threshold and suspicious transaction guidelines govern reporting.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

4. Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund — introduction

   Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund, Government of Nepal · Scheme operating since 2010 under the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Fund Act 2073 (2016) · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: Coverage of NPR 500,000 per natural individual depositor per member institution on savings and fixed deposits combined, and the 0.16 percent premium charged to member institutions.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

5. Nepal Rastra Bank Foreign Investment and Foreign Loan Management Bylaw, 2078 (2021) — English text

   Nepal Rastra Bank, Foreign Exchange Management Department · 2021, incorporating amendments to the third amendment · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: Bylaw 4(1) notice before remittance and Bylaw 5(1) recording of foreign investment within six months of remittance of foreign currency.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

6. Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring — 19 June 2026

   Financial Action Task Force · 19 June 2026 · Tier 3 — Multilateral institution

   Supports: That Nepal remained under increased monitoring in June 2026, having been listed on 21 February 2025.

   Accessed 26 August 2026