Nepal Clearing House taps ACI Worldwide to establish Payment Infrastructure

By Gloria Mathias

ACI Worldwide has announced that Nepal Clearing House (NCHL), a public limited company of Nepal Rastra Bank, has chosen the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform for the establishment and operation of the National Payment Switch (NPS).

The establishment of Card Payment Central Infrastructure includes the interoperability of card-based transactions (NPS National Card Switch or NPS-NCS) and the rollout of a domestic card scheme for Nepal (NEPALPAY).

Currently, domestic card transactions are routed through international payment gateways. Once this card payment central infrastructure is established as a part of NPS-NCS, banks and financial institutions in Nepal will be able to provide domestic NEPALPAY cards to their customers, which will help increase acceptance, implement data localization, and reduce transaction charges.

“The establishment of National Payment Switch (NPS) infrastructure and the rollout of the NEPALPAY card is expected to make a significant stride in Nepal to reform and consolidate the entire payment ecosystem. Our partnership with ACI aligns with our mission to facilitate the development of secure and trusted new payment methods and technologies in Nepal,” said Neelesh Man Singh Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer of NCHL. “ACI has a stellar track record in providing scalable and innovative solutions to build transformative payment capabilities, and we are excited to bring seamless and convenient card payment services to Nepal.”

NPS-NCS and NEPALPAY are part of the National Payment Switch (NPS) initiative, the core infrastructure for routing and settlement of retail transactions to ensure interoperability of card and non-card-based payments within Nepal. The NPS initiative includes the Retail Payment Switch (RPS) for handling retail (non-card) transactions and retail instruments, which is already in place including the interoperable domestic scheme of NEPALPAY QR.

“NCHL is at the forefront of transforming the digital payments landscape in Nepal, and ACI is proud to support NCHL with cutting-edge technologies to supercharge this transformation,” said Thomas Warsop, President and CEO of ACI Worldwide. “With decades of experience and unrivalled expertise in digital payments, ACI is well-positioned as a trusted partner to help advance the interoperability of payments ecosystems in Nepal and across the world.”