The Patan Appellate Court on Sunday freezed all assets belonging to Nepal Development Bank (NDB).

The single bench of judge Devendra Gopal Shrestha issued an interim order prohibiting the bank to hand over, sell or put up its property as collateral.

The Appellate Court also ordered the troubled bank to submit a written clarification within seven days why it should not be liquidated.

The court gave the order in response to an application filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) seeking permission to liquidate the bank. The court has ordered the bank to produce itself before the court on July 8 and has also fixed the hearing for July 15.

If the court gives the order to liquidate NDB, the company registrar office will appoint a liquidator.

NRB had on June 3 decided to liquidate Nepal's first private sector development bank after its long effort to revive the latter's deteriorating financial health failed.

The central bank took this step on finding NDB's reply to its letter seeking clarification unsatisfactory.

The central bank had declared NDB a problematic bank in October 2007. Its accumulated losses had reached Rs 678.6 million by the end of mid-March 2009. nepalnews.com