Money sent to Nepal completes on Nepal's calendar. Nepal Rastra Bank Notice No. 21/2082-83 of 5 April 2026 made every Saturday and Sunday a public holiday for licensed banks from 6 April 2026, with office hours Monday to Friday. Holidays are gazetted in the Bikram Sambat calendar, whose year begins in mid-April, and the bank counter, the real-time settlement system and the clearing house each observe a different set of open days.
A transfer from Australia to Nepal completes on Nepal's calendar. Since 6 April 2026 Nepalese banks have opened Monday to Friday and closed Saturday and Sunday. Their holidays are gazetted in the Bikram Sambat calendar, whose year begins in mid-April, and three institutions in the payment chain keep three different sets of open days.
Key Takeaways
- Nepal Rastra Bank Notice No. 21/2082-83 of 5 April 2026 made every Saturday and Sunday a public holiday for licensed banks. That two-day weekend has been in force and applied continuously since 6 April 2026.
- Every Nepal Rastra Bank notice is dated in Bikram Sambat (BS) only. BS 2083 runs 14 April 2026 to 13 April 2027, and its month lengths, worked out from the Gazette rather than published as a table, run from 29 to 32 days.
- Dashain is gazetted for seven days, Saturday 17 to Friday 23 October 2026. The weekend that follows takes the closure to nine consecutive days, which is arithmetic from the gazetted dates rather than a published figure.
- The dates and the length both move: the same publisher gave Dashain five days in BS 2081 and seven in BS 2083.
- The counter, the settlement system and the clearing house keep three calendars, and the clearing house keeps a fourth for foreign currency that follows United States federal holidays.
Which days are Nepalese banks open?
Monday to Friday. Nepal Rastra Bank, through its Bank and Financial Institutions Regulation Department, issued Notice No. 21/2082-83, dated 2082/12/22 in Bikram Sambat, which is 5 April 2026. It was made under section 79 of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058 and addressed to licensed banks and financial institutions, to infrastructure development banks, and to Nepal Clearing House Limited.
From Chaitra 23, 2082 BS, which is 6 April 2026, every Saturday and Sunday is a public holiday. Office hours are 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday, shortening to 09:00 to 16:00 from Kartik 16 to Magh 15, which is 2 November 2026 to 29 January 2027. Nepal Rastra Bank published office hours only, and no customer counter hours to go with them.
That two-day weekend has been in force and applied continuously since 6 April 2026. Notice No. 7/083-84 refers to consecutive public holidays from 2083/05/19 to 2083/05/21, which is Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September 2026. Those days only read as consecutive if the Saturday and the Sunday are holidays.
Two documents still on Nepal Rastra Bank's site describe the older Sunday-to-Thursday week with a Friday half day: the BS 2083 bank holiday list, published 20 March 2026, and version 03 of the settlement system rules. Both are superseded on this point by the April 2026 notices.
The AUD to NPR corridor page carries the rate for this pair; this page carries the days on which it can move.
Why is the date on a Nepalese bank notice unfamiliar?
Because it is written in Bikram Sambat, Nepal's official civil calendar, with no Gregorian date on the document face. The Nepal Gazette defines the year for all government offices and public bodies as "Bikram Sambat 2083, Baisakh 1 to the end of Chaitra", and Nepal Rastra Bank's holiday list notes that the Nepalese year "starts and ends on mid April". The calendar is set by a government body, the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Bikash Samiti, under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
Nepal Rastra Bank's holiday list gives BS 2083 as 14 April 2026 to 13 April 2027. Month lengths are not 30 and 31 as in the Gregorian year: they run from 29 to 32 days, with Ashad at 32 and both Mangsir and Magh at 29. That range is arithmetic worked out from the Gazette's own list of Saturdays across the month boundaries, not a table any of these bodies publishes. The practical consequence is that a date expressed in one calendar cannot be converted to the other by counting.
Nepal Rastra Bank's own reporting year ends in mid-July. Its annual report is titled "Based on Annual Data (Mid-July 2026) of Fiscal Year 2025/26", and its circular series turns over at the same point.
How long does the biggest closure actually last?
Longer than the holiday list says. Nepal Rastra Bank's BS 2083 bank holiday list and the Ministry of Home Affairs gazette agree on the dates below.
| Festival | Bikram Sambat | Gregorian | Gazetted days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dashain | Ashoj 31 to Kartik 6 | Sat 17 Oct to Fri 23 Oct 2026 | 7 |
| Tihar | Kartik 22 to Kartik 26 | Sun 8 Nov to Thu 12 Nov 2026 | 5 |
| Chhath | Kartik 29 | Sun 15 Nov 2026 | 1 |
Dashain's last gazetted day is Friday 23 October 2026, and the weekend follows it immediately. Counted from those gazetted dates, banks are shut from Saturday 17 October through Sunday 25 October, nine consecutive days, reopening Monday 26 October 2026. The nine-day span is arithmetic rather than a published figure, and it follows from the April 2026 two-day weekend: under the old one-day weekend the same gazetted week would have closed banks for eight days.
Tihar behaves the same way. The Saturday before it joins the gazetted run, giving six consecutive closed days from Saturday 7 November to Thursday 12 November, then the weekend again, with Chhath falling on the Sunday. The six-day span is arithmetic from the gazetted dates, like the nine.
The gazette adds a detail. Clause 10.1 lists banking and insurance transactions among the public services ministries must arrange to deliver on named festival holidays, and that list does not include Dashain or Tihar. The continuity obligation covers the single-day festivals only.
Can you plan from last year's festival dates?
No, because both the dates and the length move. Dashain follows the lunar calendar, and the proof sits in one publisher's own two documents in the same series. Nepal Rastra Bank's BS 2081 list gives Dashain as 10 to 14 October 2024, five days. Its BS 2083 list gives 17 to 23 October 2026, seven days. The festival shifted about a week later in the Gregorian year and grew by two gazetted days. The list's length moves too: 36 numbered entries in BS 2083 against 38 in BS 2081, six of the 36 reading "As declared by Government of Nepal", and many limited to a single district or community.
Do the counter, the settlement system and the clearing house agree?
They do not. Three institutions in the same payment chain observe three different sets of open days.
| Institution | Calendar it keeps | Point of difference |
|---|---|---|
| Bank counters | 36 holiday entries on the BS 2083 list, Monday to Friday | Closed Saturday and Sunday |
| Real-time gross settlement, run by Nepal Rastra Bank | Monday to Friday 08:00 to 20:00, plus Sunday 10:00 to 12:00 | Runs on Sunday, when counters are shut |
| Nepal Clearing House Limited | Seven system holiday entries for BS 2083 | A shorter list than the bank holiday list, which is what the two published documents show; the clearing house does not publish the comparison |
The Sunday window comes from the Nepal Rastra Bank Payment Systems Department notice of 27 April 2026, which states that "every Sunday, the system shall operate 10:00 to 12:00 for the purpose of settling the transactions of payment service operators". Opening the system on a public holiday by exception notice is routine: at least ten such notices exist, six of them in 2026, including the final working weekend of the fiscal year on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July 2026.
Nepal Clearing House Limited then adds a fourth calendar. It publishes a separate foreign-currency clearing list that follows United States federal holidays, with eleven closures applying to foreign currency only: Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day and Washington's Birthday. United States dollar clearing inside Nepal therefore closes on days when rupee clearing is open.
One discrepancy is worth naming rather than smoothing over. The clearing house lists its Dashain closure as beginning 18 October, a day after Nepal Rastra Bank's 17 October. The consistent explanation is that 17 October 2026 is a Saturday and already a weekly holiday, so it is not listed a second time as a system holiday.
What happens when a holiday is declared at short notice?
The settlement system rules answer this directly. Clause 14.1 makes the system available on a normal business day except where it is a public holiday in Nepal, or as may be notified, and clauses 14.3 and 14.4 let Nepal Rastra Bank extend, suspend and resume the business day.
On a suddenly declared holiday, new payment orders value-dated to that day are rejected, and payment orders already accepted move automatically to the next business day. Any of the six entries marked "As declared by Government of Nepal" can become that kind of day.
Where to look next
- AUD to NPR rate and converter - the corridor page for Australian dollars into Nepalese rupees.
- Convert AUD to NPR - the same pair on the convert page, with the amount table.
- Currency converter - a tool for converting an amount between two currencies.
- How international transfers work - the process end to end, including why a transfer can be held or returned.
Sources
- Nepal Rastra Bank, Bank and Financial Institutions Regulation Department notices: https://www.nrb.org.np/category/miscellaneous-notices/?department=bfr
- Nepal Rastra Bank, list of bank holidays for BS 2083: https://www.nrb.org.np/hrm/list-of-holidays-for-2083-b-s/
- Nepal Rastra Bank, list of bank holidays for BS 2081: https://www.nrb.org.np/hrm/list-of-bank-holidays-for-2081-b-s/
- Nepal Rastra Bank, real-time gross settlement notices and system rules: https://www.nrb.org.np/category/rtgs-notices/
- Ministry of Home Affairs, government and public holidays in BS 2083: https://www.moha.gov.np/en/page/government-and-public-holidays-in-2083
- Nepal Clearing House Limited, holiday list BS 2083 with foreign currency: https://nchl.com.np/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/NCHL_HOLIDAY_LIST_2083-2026_with-FCY_updated.pdf
- Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Bikash Samiti: https://npns.gov.np/
General information about sending money to Nepal, describing published rules and gazetted dates rather than any particular transfer, and not a recommendation of any provider, bank or account. Tradergy is not a money-transfer service, keeps no account and collects no personal data. Holiday dates, banking hours and system hours are set by Nepal Rastra Bank, the Government of Nepal and Nepal Clearing House Limited, and can change at short notice. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Which days are banks in Nepal open?
Monday to Friday. Nepal Rastra Bank Notice No. 21/2082-83, dated 5 April 2026 and issued under section 79 of the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058, made every Saturday and Sunday a public holiday for licensed banks from 6 April 2026. Office hours are 09:00 to 17:00, and 09:00 to 16:00 from Kartik 16 to Magh 15, which is 2 November 2026 to 29 January 2027. Nepal Rastra Bank published office hours only, not customer counter hours.
Why does a Nepal Rastra Bank notice carry a date like 2082/12/22?
Because Bikram Sambat is Nepal's official civil calendar, and central bank notices are dated in it alone with no Gregorian date on the document face. 2082/12/22 is 5 April 2026. The Nepal Gazette defines the government year as Bikram Sambat 2083, Baisakh 1 to the end of Chaitra, and Nepal Rastra Bank's holiday list notes that the Nepalese year starts and ends in mid-April. BS 2083 runs from 14 April 2026 to 13 April 2027.
How long do banks in Nepal close for Dashain in 2026?
Nepal Rastra Bank's bank holiday list for Bikram Sambat (BS) 2083 gazettes seven days for Dashain, Ashoj 31 to Kartik 6, which is Saturday 17 October to Friday 23 October 2026. The gazetted run ends on a Friday and the weekend follows it immediately, so the unbroken closure runs from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 25 October, nine consecutive days, with banks reopening on Monday 26 October 2026. The nine-day figure is arithmetic from the gazetted dates, not a published number.
Does Nepal's settlement system run at the weekend?
Yes, for a two-hour window. The Nepal Rastra Bank Payment Systems Department notice of 27 April 2026 sets real-time gross settlement hours at Monday to Friday 08:00 to 20:00, and 08:00 to 19:00 from Kartik 16 to Magh 15. It also states that every Sunday the system shall operate from 10:00 to 12:00 for the purpose of settling the transactions of payment service operators. Sunday is a day the bank counters are closed.
What happens when Nepal declares a holiday at short notice?
The real-time gross settlement system rules cover it. Clause 14.1 makes the system available on a normal business day except where it is a public holiday in Nepal, or as may be notified, and clauses 14.3 and 14.4 let Nepal Rastra Bank extend, suspend and resume the business day. On a suddenly declared holiday, new payment orders value-dated to that day are rejected, and payment orders already accepted move automatically to the next business day.