September 29: Machhapuchhre Bank and Janata Bank have signed an MoU to enter into a merger. Chairman of Machhapuchhre Bank Dr. Birendra Prasad Mahato and Janata Bank Chairman Uday Nepali signed the MoU amid a programme.

The newly formed board of directors will have three members from board of directors of both banks. After the merger, the bank’s head office will be in Pokhara, and corporate office in Kathmandu.

The banks decided to go for merger following an NRB directive to commercial banks to raise their paid-up capital to Rs 8 billion. The new bank has a paid-up capital of Rs 5.71 billion. After merger the bank’s total has 92 branches and 98 ATMs. Following the decision to go for a merger, share transactions of both banks were suspended on September 21.