Kathmandu. Nepal’s banking sector has been surprised to receive the ‘Bank of the Year’ award by Citizens Bank. Despite being a better bank than Citizen’s, the bank received the ‘Bank of the Year’ award.

On the other hand, the bank was found to have received the ‘Bank of the Year’ award by submitting wrong details to the shareholders in the BPA Award distributed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) earlier, instead of the annual statement submitted to the shareholders. This discussion is going on all around.

Meanwhile, an international investment expert has said that getting the ‘Bank of the Year’ award from Citizens Bank is a loss for Nepal.

Similarly, he pointed out that the perception of Nepali banks at the international level could be wrong if a weak bank like Citizens receives the award for excellence. “Citizens may have arranged the papers asked for by The Banker magazine, but is Citizens Bank the best bank in Nepal? How will the perception of Nepali banks go in the international forum when a weak bank like Citizens Bank is considered the best?” ’

On the other hand, another expert argues that a bank which has a dispute from the employees to the appointment of the CEO, the bank which has misused the CSR money, such a bank cannot be called the best.

“A bank whose question has been raised at the public level in the appointment of its CEO, whose CEO has been subjected to disciplinary action by the country’s regulator, which has misused CSR money, should such a bank be considered superior? Don’t you need the recommendation of the Rastra Bank on this?” he asked. And how does this send a message to Nepal in the international arena? Shouldn’t the NRB think about this?”

So much so that the badge of excellence worn by Citizens Bank has worked to discourage foreign investors, which will cause loss to Nepal, experts say.

Citizens Bank has been awarded the Bank of the Year award by the British financial magazine ‘The Banker’. However, no other bank from Nepal has applied for the award and Citizens has been found to be the sole contender for the award.