Governor Adhikari Launches Corporate Pay System

Kathmandu : Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) has launched CORPORTEPAY system during an online program organized today by the company for business customers of the banks and financial institutions.

The system was officially inaugurated by the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Mr. Maha Prasad Adhikari in the presence of the distinguished guests from Nepal Rastra Bank including Deputy Governors Mr. Chintamani Siwakoti and Mr. Shiba Raj Shrestha, Executive Directors Mr. BhubanKadel, Mr. Dev Kumar Dhakal, presidents of the respective associations of BFIs Mr. BhuvanDahaland Mr. SarojKajiTuladhar, the CEOs of the commercial banks, development banks and finance companies, the Chairman of NCHL Board & Executive Director of Banking Department, Nepal Rastra Bank Mr. Naresh Shakya and the Board members of NCHL.

CORPORATEPAY system has been established as a business payments platform to enable digital transactions for the business and corporate customers of the banks and financial institutions.Now, the corporates and business institutions will not have to depend on cash and cheques, rather use an alternate channel to initiate and process the payments. All such payments will be processed through the underlying systems of connectIPS for real-time transactions and NCHL-IPS for non-real-time transactions.

The system supports interbank and intra-bank fund transfers, salary payments, vendor payments, Government of Nepal tax & revenue payments, SSF contribution payments, payments related to EPF/CIT and other creditor or service payments. The customer will have to one-time request its bank for enrollment to avail of the service after which an access to the system is provided. The transactions can then be managed completely by the users of the business institution without manual intervention of the bank up to a transaction limit and it has to be additionally approved by the bank above the limit. A corporate can link multiple banks using the same channel and is equipped with multi-layer of security.

Nepal Rastra Bank under the current leadership has been taking keen initiatives both at the policy and execution level for increasing the digital channels and its acceptance so that the overall digital economy of Nepal can be enhanced. During the launch program, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank mentioned “NCHL has been a key entity towards executing Nepal Rastra Bank’s policy of digitalizing the payments ecosystem to move from cash to cheques and then towards non-paper based digital systems. NRB’s strategic direction is to focus on reducing cash-in-circulation vis-à-vis the overall economy. And today’s launch of the CORPORATEPAY system will be a key milestone for digitizing the institutional customers of the banks and financial institutions. This is expected to significantly reduce the usage of paper based instruments including cash andcheque.”

The implementation for digitizing the businesses through the CORPORATEPAY system has been successfully realized under the direction of the Chairman of NCHL, Mr. Naresh Shakya, who is also the Executive Director of Banking Department, Nepal Rastra Bank. Speaking at the program, Mr. Shakya said “NCHL has been providing various payment systems including NCHL-ECC, NCHL-IPS, connectIPS, NPI and connectRTGS. With the addition of CORPORATEPAY, the member BFIs will now be able to provide additional digital channel to their business customers typically SMEs and MSMEs that is expected to increase digital transaction volume and value. In line with NCHL’s principle for re-investment and our commitment to facilitate the payments ecosystem, the system has been provided to the BFIs at no additional cost, similar to the approach followed for most of the other systems and services.”

CORPORATEPAY system has already been subscribed by over 20 banks and financial institutions with majority of them in processes of enabling their customers. And NCHL is engaged in facilitating the BFIs for their readiness. With the level of support from NRB and the BFIs, the system is expected to have positive impact on the digital economy.