Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has told Sunrise Bank to discontinue the Orange NXT service. The directive could jeopardize the bank’s initiative to provide advanced digital banking services to its customers.
Through Orange NXT, Laxmi Sunrise Bank has been providing online services such as opening an account, KYC update, and others that might otherwise require physical presence at the bank. It’s an example of a new banking service in Nepal. Developed by F1Soft, the bank brought it into operation in 2024. F1Soft worked on it for three years before fully developing it.
Also: What is neo bank and what it will do in Nepal?
NRB tells Laxmi Sunrise to stop the OrangeNXT service
NRB said that there is no regulatory framework for the operation of the OrangeNXT service in the next two months. The regulatory bank has directed Laxmi Sunrise Bank to migrate its users to the regular banking service.
How many are in the OrangeNXT service of Laxmi Sunrise Bank?
There are around 60,000 customers on the OrangeNXT service of Laxmi Sunrise Bank. There are up to 35,000 customers with a KYC update on the same service. IT’s said that there are over Rs 15 crore in transactions in these active accounts.
Subash Sharma, director of F1 Soft Group, says that it is not appropriate to try to stop the choice of technology just because regulatory provisions have not been established. “We had developed this product for three years to attract the new generation towards banking using technology. We had informed NRB when we launched this service through Laxmi Bank a year and a half ago. However, a directive has been issued by the National Bank to suspend OrangeNXT on Shrawan 29, a year and a half after the service was launched. The directive is to migrate Orange Next users to the bank’s existing system within two months.”
He remarked that the current banking system is not suitable for the new generation, and Orange Next has been developed with the aim of making their experience and banking enjoyable.
Laxmi Sunrise Bank’s OrangeNXT service has features such as goal-based deposit, expense tracker, chatbot, smart budget, etc. If the service is closed, users who could amount to 60,000 will be deprived of these features in the coming days.
But the interesting thing is that the government itself announced a plan to start neo banking in the FY 2082/83 budget speech. But in a contradiction, NRB has directed Laxmi Sunrise Bank to stop the OrangeNXT service, which mimics the concept of neo banking.