The Nepal Arab Bank Limited with its acronym NABIL will be re-named Nabil Bank Ltd. with effect from New Year’s Day 2002, an elected director said Thursday.
The Bank’s management came to a decision Sunday. “The word Arab was becoming a liability,” said the director who preferred anonymity. A United Arab Emirates bank sold its 50 percent stake to a Bangladeshi bank to become the first foreign bank to withdraw from Nepal several years ago.
The UAE bank entered Nepal during the panchayat era. A French bank this month has also decided to withdraw from Nepal citing adverse conditions even as the government announced a policy to permit majority holdings for foreign promoters in joint venture banks.