Foneloan in Nepal: what the Rs 2 lakh loan in your mobile banking app actually costs

A friend in Baneshwor opened her bank app on the second day of Dashain to pay for bus tickets home and found a green banner: "You are pre-approved for Rs 1,50,000." No form, no guarantor, no visit to the branch. She tapped through three screens, saw an EMI number, and closed the app because she had no idea whether it was a good deal.

She was one of roughly 5 lakh Nepalis who have such a banner waiting. The loan behind it is Foneloan, and depending on whose count you trust, ten or eleven commercial banks offer it. This post prices it, explains who gets it, and shows the one rule that makes a missed instalment more expensive than it looks.

What it actually is

The product is built by Foneloan Pvt Ltd, an F1Soft group company, and it runs inside each partner bank's own app. Foneloan's site lists ten partner banks and three products: a one-month payday loan, an EMI loan, and HamroBNPL. The bank lends the money and owns the risk. Foneloan's analytics decide whether you qualify.

The scale surprised me. Ratopati reported in June 2026 that more than Rs 17 billion had gone out across more than 5.5 lakh loans through ten banks, with about 5 lakh customers pre-approved and a non-performing loan ratio of 2.12%. Foneloan's head of risk put the model in one line: "the customer's behavior is the collateral."

The bank lists do not agree. Foneloan's own page names ADBL, Citizens, Kumari, Laxmi Sunrise, Machhapuchchhre, Nabil, NIMB, NIC Asia, Prabhu and RBB. Nepal News's 23 October economic brief counts eleven, adding Everest and NMB and leaving out NIMB. Either way, if your salary lands in a large commercial bank, the banner is probably in your app or will be.

The NRB rules behind it

Digital lending by banks runs under NRB's Digital Lending Guidelines, first issued in February 2022 and revised in June 2026. The parts that matter to a borrower:

The original guideline's other provisions, summarised by Pradhan & Associates, also require the bank to check you do not already hold a similar digital loan elsewhere and to use your data only for loan processing.

The Rs 2 lakh in this month's headlines is a bank-level cap, then, not the law. NIMB's Smartloan has gone to Rs 5 lakh over 1 to 36 months since 2024 and Laxmi Sunrise's Smart FoneLoan page now shows the same maximum.

Bank by bank

Every partner sets its own limit and rate. What each publishes:

Sources are the banks' own pages: NIC Asia's helpdesk (last updated in 2023, so check it again), Kumari, Machhapuchchhre's FAQ, Everest, Nabil via ShareSansar, RBB via ShareSansar and ADBL.

Notice what is missing: rates. Only NIC Asia prints its Foneloan rate on a tariff sheet. Machhapuchchhre says interest and processing fee are "as per Standard Tariffs and Charges" without putting the number on the FAQ. Ratopati's range of "single digits to 14 to 15%" is the best cross-bank figure available, and it is a reporter's summary rather than a rate sheet.

NIC Asia's exclusion list is worth reading too. You do not qualify if you are on the CIB blacklist, more than 30 days overdue on another loan, a NIC Asia credit-card holder, a police officer, lawyer, judge or journalist, a politically exposed person, or someone who will be over 58 when the loan matures.

What it costs: NIC Asia as the worked example

NIC Asia's February 2026 tariff sheet, section 4.17, prices Fone Loan at base rate + 7% a year with a late payment fee of 0.5% a month of the transaction amount. Section 9.5 adds 2% a year penal interest on anything overdue. The bank's published base rate for Bhadra 2083 is 5.57%, so the loan runs at about 12.57% today. The base rate has fallen two months running (5.83% in Asar, 5.68% in Shrawan), and because the rate floats on the base, the cost moves with them.

Interest on that rate, using the standard reducing-balance EMI formula (my calculation):

No partner bank I found publishes a Foneloan processing fee, so the table has none in it. NRB's guidelines bar the bank from charging extra for the tech partner, which does not stop an ordinary loan fee. Check the confirmation screen before you accept.

Against the alternatives

The same Rs 1 lakh over 12 months, priced by route. Card figures use NIC Asia's 2% a month (24% a year) from the same tariff; the personal-loan line uses the Asoj 2083 range from the Dashain borrowing comparison. All interest figures are my EMI arithmetic.

Foneloan sits in the middle. It costs more than a branch loan, and the gap is what you pay for speed and for not needing collateral. It costs half of a revolved card. A loan against your own FD beats all of them if you have one.

The rule that makes a missed EMI expensive

Ratopati reported that one missed instalment blacklists the borrower from Foneloan at every partner bank. That is Foneloan's own platform rule, not the NRB blacklist. The CIB is a separate matter: under Directive 12/082 a borrower is blacklisted only after a year overdue and above a Rs 10 lakh threshold, which a Rs 2 lakh app loan cannot reach on its own. That does not make a default harmless. The guidelines require the bank to report digital-loan defaulters to the bureau, and the overdue record shows up in your CIB report the next time you apply for a home loan.

Meanwhile the late charges stack. On a Rs 1 lakh loan at NIC Asia, the late payment fee alone is Rs 500 a month, before the 2% penal interest. Several banks, including Machhapuchchhre, do not allow prepayment either, so you cannot clear the loan early to stop the interest.

Who it fits, who it does not

It fits a salaried borrower with a dated repayment: a deposit for a flat due before the Mangsir salary, a medical bill while an insurance claim is processing, a laptop that pays for itself in freelance work. Here a 30-day payday loan of Rs 50,000 costs about Rs 520 at NIC Asia's rate, if it is repaid on day 30.

It does not fit a gap that recurs. If the banner gets tapped every Dashain, the problem is the missing festival sinking fund, and a 12.6% loan just moves this year's shortfall into next year's cash flow. It also does not fit anyone already juggling a card, a BNPL plan and an EMI. HamroBNPL is part of the same platform, and the zero-EMI arithmetic applies there too.

And if the loan offer comes from an app that is not your bank's own app, stop. The guidelines require the lender to be a licensed bank and to say so. Anything else belongs in the instant loan app scams category, however polished it looks.

What you actually need to know

1. Foneloan is a regulated bank loan at roughly 12 to 15%, priced off the base rate. NIC Asia's base + 7% is 12.57% this month. It is cheaper than a revolved card and dearer than a secured personal loan or a loan against your FD.
2. Rs 2 lakh is the common bank cap, Rs 5 lakh is the legal one. NRB allows Rs 5 lakh over three years if income lands in your account; most partner banks still stop at Rs 2 lakh.
3. One missed instalment costs more than the late fee. It reportedly locks you out at every partner bank, adds 2% penal interest at NIC Asia, and sends a default record to the bureau that your next home-loan officer will read.

Got a Foneloan banner and want a second opinion on the number? Email parjanya57@gmail.com with the bank, the amount and the EMI it offered and I'll work out the effective rate.

This post is part of the Nepal Money Basics guide — the save-the-gap section.