August 23: Finding the Nepali nationals involved in depositing money in foreign banks against the law requires support from the concerned countries and international anti-money laundering institutions, according to Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada.

The finance minister said investigating this issue is an uphill battle without the support from international anti-money laundering institutions.

“Our lone effort will be useless until we get information from the concerned stakeholders,” said Khatiwada.

Nepal is a signatory to the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML CFT) agreement. Khatiwada believes this would help Nepal gain vital information regarding its citizens maintaining accounts in foreign banks.

Nepali nationals are forbidden to invest abroad in accordance to a law drafted 54 years ago.

However, various reports have pointed out that Nepali nationals have bank accounts in different foreign banks.

An investigative journalism report unveiled last year has found that 55 Nepalis have invested in foreign countries.