Himalayan Bank’s Online Services Remain Disrupted for Two Weeks Amid System Upgrade

Himalayan Bank’s online banking service has remained disrupted for the past two weeks after the bank began upgrading its core banking system.

The bank had earlier announced that all its branches and online banking services would remain closed from October 20 to 27 during the public holidays of Tihar–Chhath festivals to carry out the upgrade. However, due to delays in data migration, online services have not resumed even by Monday evening.

Although the bank had publicly notified that all transactions would remain suspended until October 27, it later issued another notice on October 31, stating that online transactions would remain temporarily “disturbed.”

Himalayan Bank has upgraded its core banking software from Temenos T-24 to R-22. While counter-based banking services resumed last Tuesday after a weeklong closure, mobile and internet banking services are yet to be restored.

The bank’s Spokesperson Sunil Prasad Gorkhali said the delay was caused by technical issues in the data transfer process. “We had aimed to complete the data migration within a week, but some technical problems required additional time,” he said, adding that efforts are underway to restore the services by Tuesday, November 4.

According to him, the bank has been providing certain services such as fixed deposit renewals via email to assist customers affected by the disruption.

The prolonged suspension of online banking has caused inconvenience to customers. The bank currently provides its services through 174 branches, 282 ATMs, 20 extension counters, over 15,000 remittance payment centers, 8,552 POS machines, 5,893 POS merchants, 2,253 terminals, and 1,127 e-commerce merchants.

As of the last fiscal year, the bank had collected deposits worth Rs 309 billion and disbursed loans amounting to Rs 232 billion. Its paid-up capital stands at Rs 21.65 billion.