Cardless cash withdrawal at Nepali ATMs: how it works and which banks support it

A colleague left his wallet at home one morning and only realized it at lunch, cash-strapped with a food order to pay for. Rather than borrowing from a coworker, he opened his bank's mobile app, found a "cardless withdrawal" option he'd never used, and walked to the ATM downstairs with nothing but his phone. Ninety seconds later he had the cash and no card had touched the machine.

This isn't a niche feature. Multiple Nepali banks have quietly built this into their mobile apps over the past five years, mostly for the "forgot my card" moment, though at least one bank markets it for something more useful: sending cash to a family member who has no account of their own.

The common mechanism, step by step

Despite different branding across banks, the underlying flow is nearly identical everywhere it's offered:

1. Open your bank's mobile banking app and authenticate with your MPIN, password, or fingerprint.
2. Choose the cardless or "withdraw without card" option and enter the amount you want.
3. The app or an SMS sends a one-time code, sometimes paired with your registered mobile number as a second identifier.
4. At the ATM, select the cardless option on the welcome screen, enter your mobile number and the code (some machines ask you to re-enter the amount too), and the machine dispenses the cash.

No physical card is inserted at any stage. The registered mobile number tied to your account acts as the identifier the ATM checks the code against.

Who actually offers it

Cardless withdrawal rolled out bank by bank rather than as one industry-wide feature, which is why availability and detail vary:

Laxmi Bank and Sunrise Bank have since merged into Laxmi Sunrise Bank, so their original 2020 and 2021 launches now sit under one institution. Given that several of these launches date back three to five years, and NRB tightened general ATM limits in 2026, it's worth confirming with your specific bank's current app that the feature and its limits still work as described, rather than assuming a 2021 press release still reflects today's terms exactly.

Two related features are worth explicitly ruling out of this list. Siddhartha Bank's "Smart Teller" is a QR-based cash service at the branch counter, not an ATM. Global IME also offers a separate branch-counter QR withdrawal. Neither is the mobile-app-plus-ATM feature this post covers, even though the marketing sounds similar.

Interbank cardless: a newer, more limited option

Until August 2024, every cardless withdrawal in Nepal only worked at your own bank's ATMs; a Nabil code was useless at a Machhapuchhre machine. NCHL's ConnectIPS-based interbank cardless service changed that, first between Prime Commercial Bank and Shangrila Development Bank, later extended to Lumbini Bikas Bank's ATMs as well. The customer registers through ConnectIPS or their bank's mobile app, requests an OTP, and can redeem it at either participating bank's ATM.

This is still an early-stage capability limited to a handful of banks, not a general "any bank, any ATM" system. If your bank isn't one of the three named here, assume your cardless code only works on your own bank's machines for now.

Limits: wallet-linked withdrawals are capped much lower

Not all cardless withdrawals carry the same ceiling. A wallet-linked withdrawal, drawing from an eSewa balance at an NIC Asia ATM (live since April 2025) or a Khalti balance at a Nabil ATM (live since January 2026), tops out around Rs 5,000 a day and Rs 25,000 a month, noticeably tighter than a regular card withdrawal.

A bank's own mobile-banking cardless channel, drawing from your actual bank account rather than a wallet, appears to inherit the same general ATM limits that apply to card-based withdrawals. NRB's Unified Payment System Directive, reported around April 2026, tightened those broader limits to roughly Rs 500 to Rs 20,000 per transaction, Rs 50,000 a day (extendable by the bank to Rs 100,000), and Rs 300,000 a month, down from earlier, looser figures. No source found a distinct, separately-published cardless limit sitting outside this general framework, so treat the regular ATM limit as your working assumption for a bank's own channel, and the lower wallet-linked figures as the exception for eSewa or Khalti withdrawals specifically. Ask your bank to confirm the current figure on your card or app, since the 2026 tightening moved these numbers down from what older articles still quote.

The OTP expiry question nobody answers consistently

This is one spot where the documentation genuinely conflicts, and it's worth flagging rather than picking one number to sound authoritative. A hands-on test of Laxmi Bank's cardless service found the generated code stayed valid for up to 12 hours, unusually long for a one-time code. A separate source describing wallet-linked cardless withdrawal cites a much shorter window, 15 to 30 minutes. These may simply be genuinely different policies at different banks rather than a contradiction; either way, don't assume your bank's code lasts all day. Check the confirmation screen in your own app for the actual expiry before you rely on it.

Sending cash to someone without an account

The one feature that goes beyond "I forgot my card" is explicitly confirmed for Laxmi Bank: you can generate the amount, your registered mobile number, and the OTP in your own app, then pass those details to a family member or friend, who walks up to any supported ATM and collects the cash themselves, no account or card of their own required. It's a genuinely useful way to get cash to someone quickly, an elderly parent, a sibling without a bank account, without a physical handoff.

Other banks' mechanics work on the same mobile-number-and-OTP pairing, and there's no obvious technical reason it couldn't work the same way elsewhere. But only Laxmi Bank states this as an intended, marketed use case in what's publicly documented; don't assume your bank's terms of service permit sharing the code with someone else until you've checked.

Security basics, and what's still unclear

App-level authentication (MPIN, password, or fingerprint) happens before any code is even generated, and the code itself is a one-time SMS OTP rather than a static PIN. Beyond that, no bank publishes a detailed security policy specific to cardless withdrawal, such as whether a code can only ever be used once or whether repeated failed entries lock the feature temporarily; these protections are reasonable to assume given how OTPs generally work, but aren't spelled out anywhere bank-specific. There's also no NRB circular that names cardless or QR-based ATM withdrawal as its own regulated channel; the closest primary document is the general Unified Payment System Directive covering ATM and debit card rules broadly.

What you actually need to know

1. Several banks offer it, but coverage and limits differ. Laxmi Sunrise Bank, NIC Asia, Nabil, Machhapuchhre, and Global IME run it through their own apps; Prime Commercial, Shangrila Development Bank, and Lumbini Bikas Bank share an interbank version.
2. Wallet-linked withdrawals (eSewa, Khalti) are capped much lower than a bank's own cardless channel, around Rs 5,000 a day versus the general ATM limit of roughly Rs 20,000 per transaction.
3. Code expiry isn't standard across banks. Don't assume a long or short window; check your own app before you rely on the code still being valid later in the day.

Not sure if your bank offers this or what its limits actually are? Email parjanya57@gmail.com with your bank's name and I'll help you find the right setting in the app.

This post is part of the Nepal Money Basics guide — the saving section.