Banking vs IT Career in Nepal: A Real-World Guide

Banking Vs IT Career in Nepal: A Practical Guide to Choosing What Fits You

Students and mid-career professionals often ask a simple question: “Should I build a career in banking or in IT?” Both paths are strong in Nepal. Banks offer structure, compliance-driven work, and steady ladders. IT offers creation, global clients, and remote options. Picking one path without current facts invites guesswork. This guide brings together verified data, grounded insights, and day-to-day realities so you can pick with confidence. You’ll see where jobs are growing, how pay moves over time, what skills hiring teams value, and what daily work feels like.

Table of Content

1. Snapshot: the job market at a glance
2. Demand drivers: what’s fueling hiring
3. Entry routes and early roles
4. Skills hiring managers keep coming back to
5. Pay, perks, and progress
6. Work settings: what your week feels like
7. Regional opportunities in Nepal
8. Risks and trade-offs
9. Who thrives where? Personas to guide your pick
10. Decision checklist: quick self-test
11. How to prepare in 90 days
12. Real-life snapshots
13. Banking vs IT: side-by-side
14. What recruiters will check—beyond CV lines
15. Where the market is heading
16. How pay data should be read
17. Ethics and compliance: a shared backbone
18. Five-step plan to pick your lane
19. Final note
20. FAQs

Snapshot: the job market at a glance

Banking in numbers

• Nepal had 20 commercial banks by the end of FY 2023/24 under Nepal Rastra Bank’s consolidation drive.

• Commercial-bank branches reached 5,056 by mid-July 2024, with 45,354 employees on roll across state-owned and private banks. 

• Deposit accounts crossed 55.9 million; loan accounts stood near 1.89 million. 

• Digital habits are now mainstream: mobile banking users hit 24.65 million and internet banking users reached 1.92 million by mid-July 2024.

IT in numbers

• Nepal’s IT service exports were estimated at USD 515 million in 2022, with contributions from companies and a large freelancer base. The study also links IT services to 1.4% of GDP and 5.5% of forex inflows in 2022. 

• Policy scaffolding exists. The Digital Nepal Framework (2019) laid out 8 sectors and 80 initiatives for a digital economy. Digital Development Site

• Telecom access keeps rising; public sources track strong broadband and mobile adoption across the country, a base that supports software and digital services growth.

Demand drivers: what’s fueling hiring

Banking: inclusion, compliance, and digital finance

Branch expansion out of urban cores, growing deposit accounts, and the push for safer, faster payments sustain hiring for frontline service, branch operations, and compliance risk roles. Rapid uptake of QR, IPS, and wallet payments adds demand for tech-aware bankers who can bridge product, risk, and customer education.

IT: exports, remote work, and product studios

Firms ship code and digital services abroad, and thousands of Nepali professionals freelance for global clients. With policy support and a large young workforce, the mix favors software engineering, QA, DevOps, product design, and data roles—often serving clients in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Entry routes and early roles

Banking entry roles

Common titles: Trainee Assistant, Assistant (operations), Customer Service, Teller, Call-center associate, Cards/ATM support.

Typical selection: aptitude test, group exercise or interview, background and reference checks.

Academic base: BBA, BBS, BBM, Economics, or any bachelor’s plus strong numeracy and service mindset.

Useful certificates: AML/Compliance workshops, Excel/Power Query, credit appraisal basics.

Entry pay for trainee/junior roles in private banks often falls in the NPR 22,000–30,000 per month band, with medical cover, provident fund, and festival bonus forming part of the package. Public sources and job-market trackers report similar bands; exact offers vary by bank and city.

IT entry roles

Common titles: Trainee/Junior Software Engineer, QA Engineer, Support Engineer, UI/UX intern, Associate Data Analyst.

Academic base: CS, IT, Electronics/Computer, CSIT.

Alternate paths: coding bootcamps, self-taught GitHub portfolios, freelance projects with tracked outcomes (tickets closed, features shipped, defects fixed).

Signals that help: clean Git commits, unit tests, small live demos, bug reports with reproduction steps.

Self-reported pay trackers show median total compensation in Nepal for software engineers near NPR 0.95M/year, with entry-level medians near NPR 0.75M/year and senior medians near NPR 1.85M/year.

Convert this to monthly cash for apples-to-apples comparisons and note that figures differ by company, stack, and client market. Treat these as directional signals, not fixed rates. 

Skills hiring managers keep coming back to

Banking: what stands out

• Customer clarity: concise answers, calm handling of peak-hour queues.

• Numeracy on the desk: tallying, reconciliations, slips, and system entries with zero error.

• Regulatory mindset: KYC, AML flags, transaction patterns, and early escalation.

• Digital fluency: card disputes, QR acceptance support, internet/mobile banking hand-holding.

• Credit basics: income documents, cash-flow views for MSMEs, collateral checks.

IT: what stands out

• Core CS habits: version control, readable code, test discipline.

• Problem breakdown: from vague client need to user story to small ticket.

• Debug speed: logs, binary search, baseline tests before and after a change.

• Dev-workflow hygiene: pull requests, code reviews, CI pipelines.

• Business sense: cost of downtime, compliance in fintech, privacy by design.

Pay, perks, and progress

Starting pay

• Banking: Trainee/assistant roles often start in the NPR 22k–30k/month band in private banks; public banks can differ. Bonuses, leave, and staff loans raise total value over time.

• IT: Directional medians from public datasets suggest NPR 0.75M–0.95M/year early in the career, with a wide spread across firms and stacks.

Mid-career growth

• Banking: Officer and Senior Officer roles add credit, trade finance, or branch P&L exposure. Pay climbs with grade, larger branch postings, and specialized streams (risk, treasury, trade ops).

• IT: Mid-career engineers move to SSE/Lead paths or IC specialist tracks (cloud, security, data). Public trackers show senior medians near NPR 1.85M/year, with some firms reporting above NPR 1M for L1/L2 ranges. 

Benefits and work-life

• Banking: predictable shifts, paid leave, festival bonus, PF/gratuity, medical; sales targets and audits add pressure in retail roles.

• IT: flexibility, hybrid/remote, hardware budgets in some firms; release nights, production outages, and time-zone calls can stretch hours.

Work settings: what your week feels like

Banking: steady cadence

You’ll meet customers, handle transactions, balance end-of-day, and close reports. Internal checks are frequent. The review culture is strong. Regular compliance refreshers and branch audits are part of the cycle. Digital channels reduce branch footfall in some pockets, yet service work stays busy with cards, QR, and account-opening traffic. 

IT: build and ship

You’ll break work into sprints, hold stand-ups, review code, write tests, and ship. You may support a client abroad and push hotfixes when logs turn red. Shipping value on time matters more than headcount or office size. Strong internet and a quiet desk at home can unlock freelance side gigs that show impact.

Regional opportunities in Nepal

Kathmandu Valley

Head offices of banks, major IT firms, product studios, and startup hubs sit here. This is where most credit, treasury, and enterprise tech roles cluster. Salary medians often skew higher than in other cities for both paths.

Other provinces

Banks add roles in growing trade corridors and emerging municipalities. IT hiring pulls from Pokhara, Butwal, Bharatpur, Biratnagar, and Lalitpur tech belts, though many teams still hub around Kathmandu for client access and talent pools. Branch counts by province reflect banking’s deep reach in Bagmati, Koshi, and Lumbini.

Risks and trade-offs

Banking sector risks

• Margin pressure & asset quality: banks face NPL swings and tight liquidity cycles; supervision reports flag credit-process gaps that require stronger risk controls. 

• Attrition: supervision notes a rise in exits from banking roles, often for jobs abroad; this can open seats for newcomers yet stretches teams.

• Digital shift: QR and instant payments grow fast, so branches reshape roles toward service, advisory, and cross-sell.

Tech sector risks

• Client dependency: heavy reliance on a small set of offshore clients can hurt during slowdowns.

• Skill half-life: stacks change; stale portfolios lose weight fast.

• Pay variance: self-reported salary sites show wide ranges; strong firms pay well, yet not every offer will match headline medians.

Who thrives where? Personas to guide your pick

Numbers-driven people person → Banking

You enjoy rules, service, and routine. You like balancing books, guiding customers through forms, and spotting risk flags. You want a visible ladder of grades and transfers. Trade ops, SME lending, or branch leadership can suit you.

Builder and problem solver → IT

You like creating, debugging, and shipping. You value autonomy, small teams, and a proof-of-work culture. You can point to working demos and tests. Product roles, cloud, QA leadership, and data engineering paths may fit.

Decision checklist: quick self-test

1. Do you enjoy direct customer contact every day, or do you prefer building systems in the background?

2. Would you rather follow strict SOPs, or write them for your repo?

3. Are you happier with targets and audits, or with sprint goals and code reviews?

4. Which pressure feels better: month-end branch close or a late-night production fix?

5. Which growth path excites you: branch P&L or platform architecture?

Mark your first instinct on each line. Count your lean toward one side to spot a natural fit.

How to prepare in 90 days

Roadmap for banking

Week 1–4

• Refresh math, data tables, logical reasoning.

• Read a bank’s annual report summary; learn about deposits, loans, NPLs, and capital adequacy at a high level.

• Practice customer scripts: KYC checks, account opening, card limits, QR basics.

Week 5–8

• Mock tests with time limits.

• Spreadsheet drills: VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables, basic dashboards.

• Small project: design a checklist for SME loan documents for a grocery store and a clinic; compare risks.

Week 9–12

• Interview practice on service cases: long queue, ATM dispute, elderly customer support.

• Read NRB public documents on digital payments and branch metrics to speak with context in interviews.

Roadmap for IT

Week 1–4

• Pick one stack: JS/TS + React + Node, or Python + Flask/FastAPI.

• Rebuild two small apps from scratch with tests.

• Post both apps live; write clean READMEs.

Week 5–8

• Join an open-source issue; submit one PR.

• Add Cypress or Playwright tests for a UI flow.

• Record a 2-minute demo per project.

Week 9–12

• Mock interviews with a friend: data structures, SQL joins, HTTP basics.

• Create a one-page portfolio with links and short case notes—what you built, how you tested, and what changed after user feedback.

• Track two metrics you improved (bugs closed, load time, or onboarding steps cut).

Real-life snapshots

From bank trainee to credit officer

A commerce graduate joined a mid-sized bank as a Trainee Assistant. Months one to three were teller windows and queue handling. Months four to six moved to account opening and card disputes. In year two, she joined SME credit support, learned collateral checks, and started field visits. By year three, she reviewed working-capital proposals and helped the branch hit a small P&L target. The ladder felt clear; the thrill came from helping a local workshop grow from two to five employees.

From QA intern to software engineer

A CSIT graduate started in QA at a fintech vendor. He wrote test cases, then small Cypress tests. A bug he caught on limits saved a weekend outage for a client bank.

He learned API testing, then fixed a minor bug himself. In month ten he shipped a tiny feature guarded by unit tests. The team trusted him with a module. 

Pay moved faster than in his friends’ non-tech roles, but he had two rough release nights that taught him how logs, alerts, and rollback plans matter.

Banking vs IT: side-by-side

What recruiters will check—beyond CV lines

Banking

• Attendance and punctuality records from internships.

• Two references who can speak to honesty and care with cash or documents.

• Basic product knowledge: savings vs current, card types and limits, QR disputes.

• Comfort with spreadsheets and English/Nepali email drafts.

IT

• GitHub activity, clarity of commit messages, and README quality.

• Tests that pass on a fresh clone; no hidden local steps.

• Short demo video and bug-fix notes showing thought process.

• A simple doc on security basics if you touch user data.

Where the market is heading

Nepal’s banks keep building on payments infrastructure and branch networks while trimming the number of institutions through mergers. Digital channels grow every year; QR and instant transfers post strong jumps. That shapes hiring toward branch service with tech fluency and risk roles that can read patterns in transactions. 

IT’s momentum rides on export services, remote collaboration, and policy support. The Digital Nepal Framework still guides public programs, while industry studies track exports through companies and freelancers.

For graduates, this mix means steady demand for developers, QA, DevOps, cloud, and data roles—plus fintech product work alongside banks. 

How pay data should be read

Salary sites like PayScale and Levels.fyi run on self-reported entries. They are useful signals, not official payscales. Treat medians as a range indicator.

Corroborate with live offers, alumni groups, and HR discussions. In banking, salary bands are tighter by grade. In IT, outliers show up when a team serves a high-paying client abroad or when a specialist owns a niche skill.

Ethics and compliance: a shared backbone

• Banking roles touch customer money and private data; KYC, AML, audit trails, and clean documentation are non-negotiable. NRB documents set expectations and review findings each year. 

• IT roles that handle payments or PII must follow secure coding, privacy guardrails, and audit-friendly logs; many teams that serve banks adopt similar discipline even outside core audit scopes.

Five-step plan to pick your lane

1. Write your story: two lines each on what tasks energize you and which ones drain you.

2. Shadow a role: half a day at a branch or a dev shop; ask about a normal Monday and a bad Wednesday.

3. Build proof: a small ledger recon sheet (banking) or a working CRUD app with tests (IT).

4. Talk to three people: one fresh hire, one mid-career, one manager—ask about growth and bad days.

5. Decide on a 6-month bet: commit, build, and measure progress; switch only with clear learning, not panic.

Final note

Both paths can lead to a good life in Nepal. Pick the workday you want, not the badge. If you enjoy structure, service, and steady steps up the grade ladder, banking fits.

If you want to build, ship, and learn new stacks, IT fits. Whichever path you choose, keep your skills fresh and your record clean. The market rewards consistency, proof of impact, and respect for customers.

FAQs

1) What degree helps most for banking or IT in Nepal?

Banking hires many graduates—BBA, BBS, BBM, Economics, and related fields. For IT, CS/IT/Engineering helps, yet portfolios can offset gaps. Short courses on Excel/credit basics support banking; Git, unit tests, and cloud basics support IT.

2) Are bank jobs safer than IT jobs?

Banks offer formal grades, strong compliance, and steady ladders. IT offers wider pay bands and fast growth in strong teams, yet more variance. Pick safety or upside based on your comfort with rules vs. creation. 

3) Can I move from banking to IT or the reverse?

Yes. Many move from branch ops to fintech QA or product roles by learning SQL, APIs, and test tools. IT folks with client-facing strength can shift into digital-bank product, cards, or analytics.

4) What skills raise pay fastest?

In banking: credit appraisal for MSMEs, trade finance, and fraud-risk skills. In IT: testing at scale, cloud deployments, security basics, and the ability to ship features that users adopt.

5) Where can I track trusted numbers on Nepal’s finance and digital sectors?

Nepal Rastra Bank reports (Bank Supervision; Payment Oversight) for banking and payments, the Digital Nepal Framework for policy direction, and IIDS/IBN publications for IT export trends. Salary medians: PayScale and Levels.fyi (directional only).