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The Payment and Settlement (First Amendment) Bill, 2083 -- introducing a fintech regulatory sandbox, mandatory National Payment Switch integration, a 30-day wallet-refund guarantee on licence revocation, and provision for foreign/global digital payment providers to enter the market -- was unanimously passed by the House of Representatives on 2026-09-23 and referred to the Finance Committee for clause-by-clause discussion (reported 2026-10-01/02). The bill has not yet been authenticated into law; NRB's existing Unified Payment System Directive and PSO/PSP licensing regime remain in force pending enactment.
Capital requirements are tiered by category and, within PSOs, by class: PSO Class A requires NPR 500 million, PSO Class B requires NPR 100 million, and PSPs require NPR 50 million minimum paid-up capital. Foreign investors may own up to 80% of a licensed entity, subject to a minimum FDI contribution of NPR 20 million and case-by-case NRB approval. Together, the licence-category bar and the tiered capital thresholds function as the two principal gatekeeping mechanisms shaping who can enter Nepal's payments market and in what corporate form - a materially more prescriptive market-entry architecture than a single-licence regime, and one that any prospective non-bank entrant must navigate before it can begin operating.
The most consequential horizon issue in this module is a draft NRB Act amendment, now circulating, that would reclassify PSOs and PSPs into the statutory definition of 'financial institutions.' This remains at an early, non-final stage with no confirmed implementation date, but its tax-rate and prudential-regime implications are significant enough that it is treated here as a standing watch item rather than a settled development.
Outlook
The reclassification proposal is the single most important item to track in this module going forward: if it advances, it would fold PSOs/PSPs into a heavier prudential and tax regime historically reserved for deposit-taking financial institutions, materially changing the economics of non-bank market entry. Absent that shift, the current PSO/PSP dual-category structure, capital tiers and foreign-ownership cap are likely to remain the stable baseline against which any new entrant's market-access strategy must be built.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal's licensing and market-access environment this cycle shows movement on two separate tracks: an immediate liberalisation of foreign-exchange and payment transaction limits, and a pending structural reclassification of the non-bank payments sector. Nepal Rastra Bank amended Unified Circular 2082 to double the annual limit for foreign exchange facilities provided by banks and financial institutions, from USD 15,000 to USD 30,000, and separately raised the limit applicable to satellite-service payments from USD 100,000 to USD 500,000. Both changes expand the volume of cross-border payment activity individuals and businesses can conduct through licensed bank and non-bank channels without additional authorisation, and represent a liberalising rather than restrictive regulatory posture at the central bank this cycle.
The more structurally significant development remains unresolved. The Nepal Rastra Bank (Third Amendment) Bill, 2083 would define payment service providers, payment system operators and remittance companies as financial institutions under the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058. The House of Representatives unanimously approved sending the Bill to the relevant parliamentary committee for clause-by-clause discussion, alongside the separate Tourism Bill, but the reclassification itself has not been enacted and its final scope remains to be settled in committee. A reclassification of this kind would bring non-bank payment entities within a supervisory category previously associated with deposit-taking institutions, with implications for prudential requirements, capital treatment, and the regulatory relationship between Nepal Rastra Bank and the payment service providers and remittance companies operating under it. Because this item pre-dates the current anchor window and because no independent confirmation of the Bill's eventual enacted form exists yet, confidence in how the reclassification will ultimately apply is held at the probable tier.
Taken together, these two developments point toward a Nepal Rastra Bank posture of expanding payment-access limits for consumers and businesses in the near term, while simultaneously working through a longer-horizon structural question of how non-bank payment entities should be classified and supervised. The two tracks are not directly linked in the available material, but both bear on the same underlying question of how far Nepal's payments market access regime extends beyond traditional banking channels.
Outlook
The Third Amendment Bill's progress through committee stage is the item to track most closely for market-access implications: enactment would represent the most significant licensing-architecture change for Nepal's non-bank payments sector identified this cycle. The foreign-exchange and satellite-payment limit increases are already in effect and should be expected to show up in transaction-volume reporting in subsequent cycles as businesses and individuals take advantage of the higher thresholds.
5 earlier distinct update(s)
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal Rastra Bank has put forward a draft amendment to Section 2(chha) of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act, 2058 that would formally define payment system operators, payment service providers, remittance companies and digital banks as "financial institutions" under Nepali law for the first time. This is currently at consultation stage, and two significant questions remain open: the applicable corporate tax rate, with debate between 25 and 30 percent, and the share-classification and lock-in rules that would apply to these newly reclassified entities. The reclassification carries real weight for market access: formal financial-institution status typically brings both stricter prudential obligations and clearer legal standing, and how the tax and share-structure questions are resolved will materially affect the cost of establishing or operating a non-bank payment institution in Nepal going forward.
Separately, NRB circulars reported this period raised the simplified-KYC onboarding threshold for wallet accounts from NPR 5,000 to NPR 10,000 in monthly turnover, and mandated real-time settlement, replacing a previous T+1 standard, for interoperable QR merchant payouts. These are drawn from a single, less-corroborated source this period and should be read with that caveat, but if accurate they represent a loosening of onboarding friction for smaller wallet users paired with a tightening of settlement speed expectations for merchant-facing QR transactions.
Outlook
The consultation outcome on the draft NRB Act amendment, expected toward the fourth quarter of 2026 on a half-year uncertainty band, is the key event to watch for this module. Its resolution of the tax-rate and share-classification questions will determine the practical licensing and market-access calculus for payment service providers, remittance companies and digital banks operating, or seeking to operate, in Nepal.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal Rastra Bank published a Strategic Framework for a five-year Fintech Strategy for Digital Financial Services, covering 2026/27 through 2030/31 and structured around infrastructure, policy/regulation/governance, and ecosystem-development pillars. This is a Tier-1 primary-regulator publication and it sets the medium-term regulatory posture for payment-services licensing and market access, though the framework document itself does not announce a new numeric rule at publication.
Alongside the strategic framework, two concrete market-access developments materialised this cycle. NRB circulars issued in March and July 2026 (Circular 02/2026 and 07/2026, per secondary reporting) raised the simplified-KYC threshold for wallet onboarding from NPR 5,000 to NPR 10,000 monthly turnover, loosening onboarding friction for lower-value wallet use cases. Separately, NRB opened its first FinTech regulatory sandbox in early 2026; an inaugural cohort of eight participants was admitted and four graduated over a six-month window, testing payments, remittances, credit-scoring and financial-inclusion use cases. This evidences an active rather than purely announced supervisory-innovation mechanism.
The bank-PSP versus non-bank-PI/EMI distinction is directly engaged by NRB's Fintech Strategy, which names a 'level playing field' sub-pillar intended to address fair-competition treatment between bank-owned and non-bank payment applications -- a response to a long-standing structural friction point in Nepal's payments market access regime, discussed further under Industry Structure below.
Outlook
Watch for implementing directives that translate the Fintech Strategy's pillars into specific licensing rules, and for the second sandbox cohort's composition and outcomes as a signal of whether NRB's regulatory-innovation posture continues at the current pace. The KYC-threshold change should also be watched for further upward revision given the current strategy's inclusion focus.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal's payment-licensing framework is well-established and actively enforced. The Payment and Settlement Act, 2075 (2019) requires all payment-related activity in Nepal to be conducted under a Payment System Operator or Payment Service Provider licence issued by Nepal Rastra Bank; operating without NRB approval is illegal under Section 5 of the Act. This core licensing requirement applies uniformly across both bank-affiliated and non-bank payment providers, and there is no carve-out for smaller or app-based digital-wallet operators: digital-wallet operation without NRB approval is explicitly illegal, underscoring that Nepal draws no meaningful distinction between traditional bank-linked payment rails and standalone non-bank payment-institution/e-money-institution models for licensing purposes -- both fall under the same PSO/PSP licensing umbrella.
The licensing policy itself was refreshed in 2079 (2023), when Nepal Rastra Bank's Licensing Policy for institutions performing payment-related work replaced the prior 2076 (2019) policy. A notable market-access feature of the 2079 policy is its extraterritorial application: it extends to foreign entities performing payment-related work in Nepal, meaning offshore payment providers targeting the Nepali market cannot rely on operating outside NRB's licensing perimeter simply by virtue of being domiciled abroad. As of this cycle, over 10 payment system operators and 27 payment service providers are licensed under this framework, indicating an established and reasonably populated non-bank payment sector operating alongside bank-affiliated payment rails.
A development with direct bearing on this licensing architecture, though not yet resolved, is a draft amendment to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act currently under stakeholder discussion. The amendment proposes including payment system operators and payment service providers within the statutory definition of 'financial institution,' a category that today applies only under the Bank and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA). If enacted, this would fold non-bank payment institutions into a regulatory category historically reserved for deposit-taking banks and financial institutions, and stakeholders have flagged the risk that this could create conflict between BAFIA's financial-institution framework and the Payment and Settlement Act's own separate licensing regime for PSOs/PSPs. The amendment remains at the discussion stage and has not been enacted.
Outlook
The key market-access question to watch is whether the draft NRB Act amendment proceeds to enactment in its current form, and if so, how the resulting BAFIA/Payment and Settlement Act interaction is resolved for licensed non-bank payment providers. A resolution that preserves the existing PSO/PSP licensing pathway as the operative regime for payment institutions, while clarifying rather than duplicating BAFIA obligations, would minimise market-access disruption; an unresolved overlap could create compliance uncertainty for both incumbent and prospective foreign payment-institution entrants.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal Rastra Bank is actively reworking two structural pillars of payments market access this cycle. A draft amendment to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act proposes reclassifying payment system operators and payment service providers as financial institutions, a change stakeholders have warned could create conflicting-provision risk against the separate Payment and Settlement Act 2075 (2018) framework under which these entities are currently licensed and supervised. This is a genuine structural legal-clarity concern: if the reclassification proceeds without careful sequencing, market entrants and existing licensees alike would face ambiguity over which statute, and which prudential regime, ultimately governs their obligations.
Alongside this, Nepal Rastra Bank's Payment Systems Department continues to maintain its roster of licensed payment system operators and payment service providers, most recently republished on 16 April 2026 and currently including eSewa, Khalti, IME Pay, PrabhuPay and CellPay, all licensed under the Payment Systems Act 2075 (2018) and the Payment Systems Regulation 2076 (2019). This non-bank payment-institution roster is distinct from bank-channel payment licensing, and the reclassification debate above bears specifically on this non-bank population's regulatory home.
Outlook
Watch whether the draft NRB Act amendment advances to enactment, and if so, whether transitional provisions are included to resolve the overlap with the Payment and Settlement Act rather than leaving licensed non-bank payment institutions to navigate two potentially competing statutory regimes.
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Nepal Rastra Bank tightened the licensing and ongoing-authorisation conditions attached to payment institutions this cycle through amendments to the Integrated Directive on Payment Systems, 2082. Payment service providers must now verify national ID details for wallet creation and updates, with compliance required by Ashwin 2083 (BS), and licensed payment institutions must retroactively collect and submit prescribed information for all existing shareholders, directors, beneficial owners and senior management — a screening obligation applied to an already-operating population rather than only to new licensees, with heavy corporate fines or licence suspension as the stated consequence of failure. Read together, these two amendments represent a shift from point-in-time licensing checks toward continuous KYC and beneficial-ownership monitoring of payment institutions, a structural conduct-supervision upgrade rather than a one-off circular. This obligation sits squarely on the non-bank payment-institution and e-money-institution side of the regulatory perimeter, distinct from bank-channel conduct rules addressed separately under Conduct, Safeguarding & Financial Promotions.
Separately, NRB has directed payment-related companies to adopt settlement-guarantee-fund-type credit-risk mechanisms and has encouraged — though not yet mandated — the integration of AI/ML tools into fraud-risk management systems. The encouragement language is explicitly non-binding at this stage, distinguishing it from the hard national-ID and BO-screening requirements that carry fine and suspension consequences.
Outlook
The Ashwin 2083 compliance deadline for wallet national-ID verification is the near-term marker to watch: whether PSPs complete verification at scale by that date will determine whether NRB's shift toward continuous KYC/BO monitoring translates into effective market-access friction for non-compliant institutions or remains a paper requirement. Whether NRB moves from encouraging to mandating AI/ML fraud-risk integration is a second marker for the following cycle.
Sources and findings (7)
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- T2https://pradhanlaw.com/publications/licensing-policy-for-institutions-that-perform-payment-related-work-2079-2023-adretrieved
- T3https://corporatenp.com/post/fintech-psp-registration-nepalretrieved
- T1https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2025/02/2024-Report_BOK-KPP.pdfretrieved
- T3https://ekantipur.com/business/2026/03/01/en/draft-amendment-to-the-nepal-rastra-bank-act-proposal-to-include-payment-system-operators-and-service-providers-in-financial-institutions-41-52.htmlretrieved
- T3https://www.lawimperial.com/registration-of-payment-service-provider/retrieved
- T1https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2025/01/Payment-Oversight-Report-2023-24.pdfretrieved