Nepal Grindlays Bank has commissioned five new full-service Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) in Kathmandu and Pokhara. Grindlays Access Cards holders can now make deposits, transfer funds between accounts, request mini-statements and chequebooks and cash withdrawals using the machines. The machines also allow Visa and MasterCards holders to withdraw money from their accounts abroad.

With 11 branches, Grindlays is the largest among the joint venture banks in Nepal and also claims to have been the most profitable one since 1996. Over 60 percent of Grindlays possessions are treasury bills, bonds and foreign currency holdings, the remainder has been invested in "risk assets," something it plans to expand in the coming years.

Grindlays, which paid Rs 135.8 million as dividends to shareholders in 1998/99, is also among Nepal's largest corporate taxpayers, having paid Rs 206 million in taxes in 1999/00