Two Nepalese banks – Kist Bank and Prabhu Bikas Bank – have formally decided to merge. Rameshwor Sapkota, coordinator of the merger committee of Prabhu Bikas Bank, and Bishnu Gopal Shrestha of Kist Bank, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for merger. Officials of the two banks have agreed to name the merged entity as ´Prabhu Bank Ltd´. It has also been agreed that Devi Prakash Bhattachan and Kumar Lamsal will be the chairman and CEO, respectively, of the new entity. Bhattachan is the chairman of Prabhu Bikas Bank and Lamsal is the CEO of Kist Bank. According to the banks, the merger process has been initiated to consolidate the capital and other strengths of the two banks and to present the merged entity as one of the strong banks in the country´s banking sector. Kist Bank was recently involved in a controversy following the resignation of Kamal Gyawali in a loan scam. Later, another CEO BN Gharti and other bank officials were also arrested by Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police.
