How to close a bank account in Nepal without losing your balance to a hidden fee

A friend moving from Kathmandu to Pokhara for a new job wanted to shut an old salary account she no longer needed. Before going to the branch, she asked around and heard three different numbers: someone said Rs 500 if you close too soon, someone else said Rs 300 for the cheque book, a third person said it was free but only if you'd banked there over a year. She went in expecting to lose something.

She lost nothing. The branch closed the account the same day, no fee, no argument. The rumors she'd collected were a mix of things that used to be true elsewhere, things that apply to a different bank entirely, and one plain myth. Here's what NRB's own rule actually says, and the handful of things that genuinely are worth checking before you sign.

The rule that makes closure free

The core fact is a regulatory one, not a bank-by-bank courtesy. NRB's financial consumer protection directive states that licensed banks and financial institutions may not charge any kind of service fee for operating a deposit account, closing an account, providing any-branch banking service, certifying an account balance, or issuing a statement. This has been in force since roughly 2013/14 and was reported at the time by the Kathmandu Post under the headline "NRB bars banks from charging service fees."

Four current tariff sheets confirm it plainly:

None of these four lists a fee, and none conditions it on how long the account has been open. If a bank official quotes you a closure charge, the reasonable next step is to ask them to point to the specific line in their own published schedule of charges. Based on the four banks checked here, there shouldn't be one.

The Rs 500 myth, and why it persists

A specific claim circulates that a bank charges roughly Rs 500 to close an account within its first six months. Checking NMB Bank's own current tariff documents (dated April 2025 and August 2025) turns up no such line item at all under account services; the claim doesn't match what NMB currently publishes. It's possible this traces back to an old tariff version, a different bank entirely, or simple word-of-mouth drift, but it isn't something the current published documents support. If you're closing an NMB account, or any account, and told there's an early-closure charge, ask to see the exact clause; the same NRB directive that voids closure fees elsewhere applies to every licensed bank equally.

What you actually have to do

The closure process itself is simple and mostly paperwork:

1. Submit a written closure request, signed by the account holder, usually on the bank's own form.
2. Surrender unused cheque leaves and your debit or ATM card. NIC Asia's help-desk guidance states this explicitly as part of the closure request.
3. Settle any linked FD or loan first. If your FD is pledged as loan collateral, or the account carries any active lien, that has to clear before the account itself can close. This isn't stated as a closure-specific rule anywhere, but it follows how a lien works everywhere: you can't release an asset that's still securing a debt.

One genuinely useful exception is worth knowing before you worry about it: Prabhu Bank's tariff normally charges Rs 300 per cheque book left uncollected for six months, but its own schedule explicitly states that charge does not apply if the account is being closed. If you're closing an account and still have an unreturned cheque book sitting at home, that specific worry may not apply to you, though it's still worth returning the book to avoid any confusion at the branch.

No bank publishes a stated turnaround time for how long closure actually takes once you submit the form, so ask your branch what to expect if timing matters.

The debit card and subscription fees: what happens to what you already paid

This is the part most people assume works like a subscription refund, and it mostly doesn't, for a specific reason. NRB's directive also bars a bank from charging a renewal fee on an electronic card before its existing validity period expires. Debit cards in Nepal are typically sold upfront, either as a one-time fee (NIC Asia: Rs 2,500 one-time, or five yearly installments of Rs 550) or a fee that covers the card's multi-year life. Since there's no periodic renewal due until the card's own expiry, there's also nothing further owed if you close mid-cycle; you simply stop using a card you already paid for in full.

What's genuinely unclear is the annual subscription-style add-ons many banks bill separately: SMS alerts (Nabil, roughly Rs 300/year), mobile or internet banking (Himalayan, roughly Rs 250 to 300/year). No bank's published tariff states whether closing mid-year triggers any partial refund of these. This is a real gap, not a settled no, so if you've just paid a fresh annual SMS or mobile-banking fee and are closing a few months later, it's worth asking the branch directly rather than assuming either way.

Can you close at any branch, or only where you opened it?

Historically, closing at your home branch has been the safer assumption, though no source pins this down as an explicit rule for an actively used account. What has changed, and recently: an NRB directive dated Ashar 2083 BS (around July 2026) requires Class A, B, and C banks and financial institutions to let customers close accounts, with the directive's reported focus on dormant accounts specifically, from any branch nationwide, or through the bank's mobile or web app, by mid-Poush 2083 (roughly mid-December 2026), with the balance transferable to another institution on request.

Whether that same any-branch, app-based convenience will extend to accounts still in regular use isn't confirmed in what's been reported so far. If your account is dormant, this rule is squarely aimed at making your life easier; the dormant account reactivation post covers what counts as dormant in the first place, and the same NRB posture that bars a reactivation fee is the same posture that bars a closure fee.

Zero-balance and payroll accounts close the same way

Nothing in the tariffs checked here differentiates a closure fee by account type. Since the NRB directive bars closure fees on deposit accounts generally, without carving out an exception for zero-balance, payroll, or remittance accounts, there's no legal basis for a bank to charge more (or less) to close one type versus another. If you're closing a payroll account after leaving a job, or a zero-balance account you opened for a one-time purpose, the same free process applies. For what genuinely is free versus fee-bearing on a Nepali bank account more broadly, see the real cost of a "free" bank account post.

What you actually need to know

1. Closure is free by regulation, not by favor. NRB's own directive bars any service fee for opening or closing a deposit account, and the major banks' current tariffs confirm zero closure charge.
2. Return the cheque book and card, and settle any linked FD or loan first. These are the actual conditions that matter, not a fee you owe.
3. A few things genuinely aren't settled yet, like whether an active account can close at any branch and whether annual add-on fees get prorated. Ask your branch directly rather than assuming either way.

Been told your bank charges a closure fee that doesn't match what's above? Email parjanya57@gmail.com with the bank and the tariff line, and I'll help you check it against their published schedule.

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