The central bank last week took over the ailing Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), which had become leader-less following the resignation of its executive chairman on 30 July. The bank's new executive chief is Basudev Ram Joshi, who was until then the management coordinator of another troubled bank, the Nepal Bank Limited. The central bank appointed Bharat Bahadur Karki as Joshi's replacement at the NBL. The task of the new management would be to control the RBB's liabilities (deposits)-given that it has not made any major investment over the past year-and undertake loan recovery on a "war footing." Independent bankers estimate that the RBB's non-performing assets are anywhere between 40-60 percent of all loans.