It is very much possible that most of us reading this piece of write-up have directly suffered from the fall of Nepal Bangladesh Bank (NBB) which led to Nepal Rastra Bank taking over the management. Even after standing in long queues, the fear of non-payment and threat of one's money going in vain must had taken away the sleep of many depositors at NBB. Headline Headlines like "Court order on NBB"and "NB Bank gives in to central bank"panicked its depositors and customers so much so that they got lined up to withdraw their hard earned money as early as 5 a.m. If we are to rely on media sources, the total cash withdrawal on 9th and 10th November alone totaled to Rs.1.87 billion. The panic, therefore, was no surprise. We could see first hand thousands of depositors thronging NBB branches all over the country once the reports of misuse of funds by NBB board and management got media coverage. As a layman, it is high time that we found reasons of why banks have so many different features and different schemes to attract and to retain their depositors and not be lured by what they have to say. There are banks offering interest rates as high as 5 per cent and as low as 1.5 per cent per annum to savings account depositors. There are banks that offer schemes carrying special features for special savings account and there are banks with varying minimum balance requirements. We can see banks going for advertisements in media like never before. It is in the end, however, the depositors' choice that matters most and that is what is of vital importance. With NBB's failure, there are many lessons that need to be learnt by depositors. Depositors should no more be disillusioned by high interest rates, attractive schemes and numerous other services promised to be rendered by Banks. Depositors have already paid high costs for their mistake of choosing the wrong bank to put in their money in NBB. If depositors are to think wisely and learn lessons from such failures, it would not be long before banks are forced to either maintain their financial etiquette or move out of the industry all together. There are many factors that led to the downfall of NBB. To name a few, it was a handful of people who misused or wrongly used their authority and power, weak central bank and government policy coupled with the ignorance of the depositors. It is time for the depositors to reason out the amount required for minimum balance and payment of high interest rates. The interest rate especially is mostly to do with the reliability, quality of services, trustworthiness of the Management and the background of the promoters. Common customers therefore should build a habit of having basic information about the organization they are likely to build relationship with. In other words, the fundamentals of the financial institution have to be right. The owners, the management, the historical background and the financial health are some very basic aspects one has to look into before building a relationship with any organization, and especially banks. The financial sector is the backbone of any nation's economy and should there be a loss of trust on banks and other financial institutions in the country, it would not take much time for the country to witness a systemic crises where the entire payment system gets affected leading to an economic downturn. It is therefore necessary that depositors keep their eyes and ears open to every activity of banks and decide with which bank they would want to build a relationship with to enable the economic development of the country and to enjoy the modern, efficient and doubt-free financial services. Banking with a certain Bank should be the matter of pride for the customers rather than being a regret. The customers should closely monitor the performance of banks. They should conduct timely study to find out which banks are ailing and which ones are maintaining their consistency as trustworthy institutions. Power Therefore, as responsible customers who have saved some money despite the ever rising expenses, we all should be conscious enough before we choose our bank; this could well be as important as buying a property- the research has to be deep. At the same time, we should be taking some responsibility for sick practices pertaining to our financial sector and try to rid of them all. We are the ones who have the power chase people with dubious intentions out of our economy. Published in The Rising Nepal. Very Informational http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=7158