By Ajay Chhetri, Kathmandu, Aug. 23: The financial access to the people of Nepal has been gradually expanding over the years.

The "Financial Access in Nepal", a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) recently showed that 67.3 per cent of the population of Nepal has at least a bank account.

The report suggested that the number of deposit accounts has significantly risen. It showed that the population with at least one bank account crossed over 67.3 per cent until mid-June 2020 up from 60.9 per cent in mid-July 2019.

The report revealed that urban areas have a concentration of deposit account. The total number of accounts per 1000 adults was 1348.1 accounts in the bank and financial institutions (BFIs). Meanwhile, the urban male population has open more bank accounts than the rural and female population. The BFIs have open 18.98 branches for each of the 100,000 population.

However, a substantial number of account is not being used. The study found that almost 33.6 percentage of accounts are dormant. It indicates that 1/3 of the bank accounts opened are not being actively used and access doesn’t guarantee its usage.

The report showed that the total number of deposit accounts in the BFIs crossed 36.6 million and loan accounts crossed 1.6 million as of mid-April 2021.

Three local levels were left without a single branch of commercial banks to date.

The NRB carried a study to explore the features of deposit accounts in A, B, C class BFIs.