The financial services sector is a key part of a thriving economy and critical for development. It facilitates payments, ensures savers have somewhere safe to keep their money, and provides direct capital to enterprises that need it.
In 2019, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) commissioned an evaluation of the impact of BII’s financial institutions portfolio. This evaluation consisted of two phases, namely a portfolio-level review completed in 2020 (phase one), and a subsequent series of in-depth case studies (phase two).
This report presents the findings of one in-depth case study, exploring BII’s investment in NMB, one of the leading commercial banks in Nepal with a strategic focus on MSME financing.
The case study found evidence that NMB reached MSMEs effectively, particularly in rural areas, due to its pre-existing scale, physical presence, and customer service quality. Our investment helped to increase the volume of capital the bank could provide, in particular by alleviating critical liquidity shortages through the provision of foreign currency. A survey of NMB’s borrowers found evidence of positive impacts on the MSMEs receiving financing, although this was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
