Kathmandu, Sept 18: Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Dr Biswo Poudel has confirmed that Rs 50 million in cash and 18 kilograms of gold were looted from Rastriya Banijya Bank’s branch inside the Parliament building during the Gen-Z protests.
Speaking on the Sushant Pradhan Podcast, Dr Poudel said the theft was one of the worst incidents of the unrest. “That branch was cleaned out, with cash and gold taken,” he said.
He revealed that 68 bank branches and 69 ATMs across the country were damaged, many inside government offices or commercial complexes. In one case in Bharatpur, thieves carried off an entire ATM but failed to extract money.
Poudel said he had feared the central bank itself would be attacked, but its Thapathali and Baluwatar offices escaped damage even as nearby buildings were destroyed.
Despite the chaos, banking and digital payment systems remained operational. Poudel credited the NRB’s Emergency Response Team and Business Continuity Plan for preventing a shutdown. “If ATMs had run out of cash or payments had stopped, looting would have escalated and people would have struggled to buy food,” he said.
He added that he personally called the head of the Bankers’ Association on September 8 to urge protection of bank staff and early return for women and employees with children.
Poudel praised the frontline teams for keeping the financial system running under extreme pressure.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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