| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1937 (1994 B.S.) | Nepal Bank Limited — the first commercial bank |
| 1948 | Nepal Rastra Bank Act passed; the central bank's legal foundation |
| 1956 (2013 B.S.) | Nepal Rastra Bank established and begins operations |
| 1966 (2022 B.S.) | Rastriya Banijya Bank — the state-owned commercial bank |
| 1968 | Agriculture Development Bank (in its classic form) for farm credit |
| 1984 | Nepal Arab Bank (now Nabil Bank) — the first joint-venture bank with foreign participation |
| 1990s | Liberalization; more commercial banks and finance companies; privatization of state banks |
| 2000s–present | Multiple acts consolidating the sector; merger wave; licensing classes "A" to "D" |
The class licence system is a convenient memory aid: A — commercial banks; B — development banks; C — finance companies; D — microfinance institutions, with cooperatives operating under their own legal regime.