Bank Statement Decoded: 20 Codes and Abbreviations on Your Nepali Statement
Decode IPS, NCHL, ABBS, RTGS, IBFT, TTR, MICR, and the 13 other codes that show up on every Nepali bank statement. Real limits, real fees, real rules.
A reader sent me a screenshot last winter. Her statement showed Rs 11.30 debited 23 times in a single month. She had no idea what it was. Her bank's customer service told her it was "system charges." It was IBFT — inter-bank fund transfers via the legacy switch — at Rs 11.30 per transaction. She had been sending small amounts to her sister at a different bank, with no idea that a free alternative existed at her own bank's mobile app. The fix took 15 minutes. The lesson took longer: most Nepalis cannot read their own statement past the balance figure.
A bank statement in Nepal looks like a wall of acronyms because the underlying payment system is, in fact, a small alphabet soup of overlapping rails. NCHL operates one set. SCT operates another. FonePay operates a third. NRB sits above all of them with directives that change every fiscal year. The codes you see are not random. They are tags from whichever rail processed the transaction. Once you can read them, you can also choose the cheapest rail next time.
The four payment rails behind every code
Nepali bank statements are generated from core banking systems (Pumori, Finacle, Flexcube, T24) that tag each transaction with the rail it travelled on. The four main rails:
1. NCHL (Nepal Clearing House Limited). Owned by Nepal Rastra Bank and 17 banks. Operates ECC (Electronic Cheque Clearing), NCHL-IPS (bulk corporate), connectIPS (retail interbank), NEPALPAY QR (national interoperable QR), and the new NEPALPAY Card (launched 31 March 2025 to break Visa/Mastercard's domestic monopoly).
2. RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement). NRB-operated. The high-value, real-time rail.
3. Card switches. SCT (Smart Choice Technologies, since 2001) and NEPS handle interbank ATM and POS card transactions. International routing still uses Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay.
4. PSO/Wallet rails. FonePay (the dominant QR and IBFT rail), eSewa, Khalti, IME Pay, and a few others. Nine licensed Payment System Operators in total as of FY 2023/24, per NRB's Payment Oversight Report.
Whichever rail processed your transaction is what stamps the narration on your statement. The same Rs 5,000 transfer from your NIC Asia to your sister's Nabil account can run on connectIPS (Rs 4 fee), FonePay Direct (Rs 10 fee), or legacy IBFT (Rs 11.30 fee). The amount is identical. The fee is not.
The 20 codes you will actually see
Sorted by frequency on a typical Nepali statement:
| Code | Stands for | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ABBS / ABBSA | Any Branch Banking Service | A transaction processed at a branch other than your home branch |
| IPS / connectIPS | Inter-bank Payment System | NCHL retail interbank transfer rail |
| NCHL-IPS | NCHL Inter-bank Payment System | Bulk corporate payments via NCHL |
| ECC | Electronic Cheque Clearing | Cheques cleared via NCHL's image-based system |
| RTGS | Real-Time Gross Settlement | NRB's instant rail for Rs 2 lakh+ transactions |
| IBFT | Inter-Bank Fund Transfer | Legacy switch transfer, typically Rs 11.30 fee |
| FonePay / FonePay Direct | FonePay payment network | QR and IBFT operated by F1Soft |
| SCT | Smart Choice Technologies | ATM and POS card switch |
| NEPS | Nepal Electronic Payment System | Alternative card switch |
| POS | Point of Sale | Debit/credit card swipe at a merchant terminal |
| CW | Cash Withdrawal | At ATM or counter |
| CD | Cash Deposit | At ATM, counter, or cash-deposit machine |
| TRF | Transfer | Internal transfer between accounts |
| CHQ | Cheque | Cheque clearing entry |
| DD | Demand Draft | Bank-issued payment instrument |
| SC / Comm | Service Charge / Commission | Fees levied by the bank |
| TDS | Tax Deducted at Source | 5% on resident interest income |
| VAT | Value Added Tax | 13% on PSO charges (BFI financial services are exempt) |
| Int Cr | Interest Credit | Monthly interest posted to your account |
| TTR | Threshold Transaction Report | Internal AML flag for cash above Rs 10 lakh; not shown on your statement |
Most narrations stack two of these together. "ABBS-CW Rs 20,000" means a cash withdrawal at a non-home branch. "POS-FonePay Rs 1,250 at Bhatbhateni" means a debit-card swipe at Bhatbhateni routed through FonePay. "TRF-IPS to Nabil Rs 50,000" means an interbank transfer to a Nabil account via connectIPS.
The transaction limits that govern your statement
Every NRB-regulated transaction has a cap. Knowing these numbers lets you split larger transactions into smaller ones, or push them to a rail with a higher limit.
| Rail | Per-transaction cap | Daily cap | Fee structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile banking (any) | Per app limit | Rs 3,00,000 | Free at most banks |
| Internet banking (web) | Per bank | Rs 20,00,000 | Free at most banks |
| connectIPS (online) | Rs 20,00,000 | Rs 20,00,000 (100 txns) | Rs 0 / Rs 4 / Rs 8 slabs |
| connectIPS (mobile) | Rs 2,00,000 | Rs 2,00,000 | Same slabs |
| FonePay Direct (IBFT) | Rs 2,00,000 | Bank-set | Rs 10 |
| Legacy IBFT | Set by sender bank | Set by sender bank | Rs 11.30 |
| RTGS | No cap | No cap (Rs 2 lakh minimum, Rs 20 lakh+ mandatory) | Bank-set, typically Rs 100 to Rs 300 |
| ATM cash | Rs 20,000 per pull | Rs 60,000 | Rs 0 own bank, Rs 20 other bank |
| Cash deposit/withdrawal | Above Rs 5 lakh requires account-payee cheque | TTR filed above Rs 10 lakh | NRB AML rule |
| Bank to wallet (eSewa, Khalti) | Rs 2,00,000 | Rs 2,00,000 | Rs 1,000,000/month cap |
| Wallet to wallet | Rs 50,000 | Rs 50,000 | Rs 500,000/month, overnight Rs 50,000 cap |
| Inward remittance | Per channel | Rs 25,00,000 | Set by NRB, raised 2025 |
The single biggest source of friction Nepali users hit is the mobile banking Rs 3 lakh daily cap. The fix is to use the bank's web portal on a desktop, where the cap is Rs 20 lakh, or to use connectIPS web. Same rail, same fee, eight times the headroom.
Reading the cheque codes (MICR)
NRB's Cheque Standards (October 2012) standardised every Nepali cheque on the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) standard. The cheque size is 7.5 inches by 3.5 inches. The bottom line of every cheque carries:
| Position | Length | Field |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 6 | 6 digits | Cheque number |
| 16 to 35 | 20 characters | Account number |
| 36 to 39 | 4 digits | Branch code (secondary sorting) |
| 45 to 48 | 4 digits | Bank code |
The MICR character set has no decimal. A Rs 1,234.50 cheque is encoded as "123450" in machine-readable form. The bank's processing system inserts the decimal at the second-last position.
The 4-digit bank code matters for tracing cheque returns. If your statement shows "CHQ Returned Rs 50,000" with no destination, the MICR bank code on the original cheque tells you which bank rejected it. NRB publishes the bank code list at nrb.org.np.
SWIFT codes: the inbound remittance line
Nepal does not use the Indian IFSC system. Banks identify with SWIFT/BIC codes for international transfers. The 8-character version identifies the head office; 11 characters add a branch code.
| Bank | SWIFT (head office) |
|---|---|
| Nabil Bank | NARBNPKA |
| NIC Asia | NICENPKA |
| Global IME | GLINNPKA |
| NIBL | NIBLNPKT |
| Nepal Bank Ltd | NEBLNPKA |
| Standard Chartered Nepal | SCBLNPKA |
| Nepal Rastra Bank | NRBLNPKAXXX |
| Himalayan | HIMANPKA |
If you receive inward remittance from family abroad, the sender bank will ask for your bank's SWIFT and your account number. The narration on your statement typically reads "Inward Rem ex [country] via [intermediary bank]." Western Union, MoneyGram, IME Pay, and Worldlink Money Transfer push their own narration prefixes. The sending money home post covers the inward-remittance mechanics.
NRB raised the daily inward-remittance ceiling per individual to Rs 25 lakh in 2025. Above that, the remittance is split across multiple business days. The dollar account post covers the FCY account side of this.
The charges that erode your balance
Six fee lines that quietly add up across a year. Real numbers from current bank Standard Charge Sheets:
| Charge | Code on statement | Typical amount |
|---|---|---|
| SMS alerts | SMS Charge / Comm | Rs 300 to Rs 500 annual |
| Cheque book | CHQ BK Issue / Comm | Rs 200 to Rs 400 per 10 to 25 leaves |
| Debit card annual | Card Fee / SC | Rs 250 to Rs 500 |
| ATM at other bank | ATM Other Bank / SC | Rs 20 per withdrawal |
| Account closure (within 6 months) | Closure Charge | Rs 250 to Rs 500 |
| ConnectIPS / FonePay transfer | IPS Comm | Rs 0 to Rs 10 per txn |
The savings account choice post walks through the trade-offs at each bank in detail. Pull the Standard Charge Sheet (every bank publishes one) before signing for any new product.
What the AML codes actually mean
Three NRB Anti-Money-Laundering rules shape what you see on a statement, even when the rule itself does not generate a visible code:
TTR (Threshold Transaction Report). Cash deposit or withdrawal above Rs 10 lakh in a single transaction, or a series within one day in a single account, triggers a report to FIU-Nepal within 15 days. You will not see "TTR" on your statement. The underlying transaction is visible. If you regularly trip the Rs 10 lakh threshold, expect a KYC update call.
Cash transaction limit. From 15 January 2026, NRB requires payments of Rs 5 lakh or more to be made via account-payee cheque or bank transfer, not cash. Land deals, vehicle purchases, and large supplier payments now flow through bank accounts by force.
STR (Suspicious Transaction Report). Filed by the bank when transaction patterns suggest fraud, structuring, or terrorist financing. Triggered without thresholds, on bank discretion. Again, invisible on the customer statement.
The visible takeaway: large cash transactions get reported. The invisible takeaway: the report does not need to surface on your statement to exist. The salary slip decoder covers a parallel set of codes from the employer side.
The dormancy line nobody wants to see
If a savings account has no transactions for 3 years, the bank marks it dormant. A current or call account hits dormant after just 1 year. The statement stops generating. Outgoing transactions get blocked. Reactivation is free under NRB rules but requires a branch visit with identity documents.
Balances unclaimed for 20 years are transferred to NRB's Banking Development Fund under BAFIA. They are recoverable by the original owner or a documented heir, but the legal paperwork is heavy. A 2026 government proposal to shorten the window to 10 years was blocked because it needs an act amendment.
If you maintain a legacy family account (a grandparent's old fixed deposit, a dormant pension account), one transaction every 24 months resets the clock cleanly.
What you actually need to know
- Every Nepali bank statement narration maps to one of four payment rails: NCHL, RTGS, card switches, or wallet rails. Knowing the rail tells you the fee and the cap.
- Mobile banking caps at Rs 3 lakh/day. Web caps at Rs 20 lakh/day. ConnectIPS web matches that. For large transfers, switch to desktop.
- The same transfer can cost Rs 0 (connectIPS under Rs 500), Rs 4 (under Rs 5,000), Rs 8 (above Rs 5,000), Rs 10 (FonePay), or Rs 11.30 (legacy IBFT). Pick the rail, not just the bank.
- The 20 codes in the table above cover roughly 95% of what shows up on a personal Nepali statement. Memorise five (ABBS, IPS, RTGS, IBFT, TDS) and the rest fall into place.
- Cash transactions above Rs 5 lakh now require account-payee cheque or bank transfer. Above Rs 10 lakh in cash triggers a TTR to FIU-Nepal silently.
If you see a code on your statement that does not appear in this list and your bank's customer service cannot explain it, email me at parjanya57@gmail.com with the narration text. There are a few legacy codes that survived through core-banking migrations and confuse customer service teams just as much as they confuse you.
This post is part of the Nepal Money Basics guide — the Understand Your Money section.