Developed by the Central Bank's Payment Systems Department, the five-year strategic roadmap aims to foster a safe, reliable, accessible, and innovation-driven digital financial ecosystem across Nepal.
Core Objectives and Vision
The primary goal of the new strategy is to drive financial inclusion, deepen the financial sector, and accelerate sustainable economic development by expanding digital financial access. To achieve this, the framework focuses on promoting responsible sector growth through supportive policy facilitation, effective regulation, robust digital infrastructure, and close collaboration among regulators and industry stakeholders.
Key Strategic Pillars
The framework is built upon several critical pillars designed to overhaul the financial technology landscape:
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Infrastructure and RegTech: Modernization of digital infrastructure and the development of advanced regulatory and supervisory technologies.
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Policy, Regulation, and Governance: Establishment of a fintech-friendly regulatory environment, ensuring fair competition for all market players, and securing digital service delivery systems.
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Ecosystem Growth and Innovation: Broadening product and service varieties, spurring technological innovation, enhancing digital financial literacy, and building internal regulatory capacity.
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Risk Mitigation and Stability: Preserving financial stability, minimizing operational risks, and leveraging innovation to drive down the overall cost of financial services.
Targeted Demographics
The strategy places a strong emphasis on inclusive growth by specifically grouping and targeting rural populations, women, youth, children, gig economy workers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), fintech entrepreneurs, and currently licensed financial institutions.
Set to be implemented over the next five years, the initiative is expected to make Nepal's broader digital economy and national payment systems significantly more systemic, secure, and transparent.
