Nepal: New 24/7 Scam Centre Aims to Freeze Stolen Bank and Wallet Funds Within an Hour
Nepal has opened a round-the-clock centre that puts police, the central bank, banks, mobile wallet firms and telecom operators in one room, with a single goal: stop stolen money moving before it disappears. The Integrated Anti-Cyber Scam Response Centre started work in Kathmandu on Friday, 6 November, and its rules give staff as little as an hour to trace and request a freeze on funds sent to a scammer.
Key facts
- The centre began operating on 6 November 2026 inside the new building of the Nepal Police Cyber Bureau, under guidelines approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- It brings together Nepal Police, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB, the central bank), banks and financial institutions, payment service providers, and telecom and internet companies.
- Complaints must be logged and prioritised within 10 minutes; the receiving account or wallet should be traced within 10 to 30 minutes; and freeze requests should go out within 10 to 60 minutes.
- It targets fraud carried out through digital banking, mobile wallets, online payments and social media.
How the centre works
Until now, a scam victim in Nepal typically had to file a police report, after which officers would write to each bank or wallet involved. By the time a freeze request arrived, the money had often been split and moved on through several accounts. The new centre is designed to cut out that paperwork by keeping representatives of each institution on duty in the same place, 24 hours a day.
When a complaint comes in, it gets a reference number and a priority level. Bank and wallet staff on site then identify where the money went and when, and send freeze requests to every institution that received it. If the funds have already been passed on, officials follow the trail and ask the next bank or wallet to freeze them too. In parallel, telecom staff can switch off SIM cards used in the scam, and internet providers can block phishing websites.
According to The Kathmandu Post, the centre has 114 staff across three shifts, including 60 from the 20 class “A” commercial banks and staff from Nepal’s two largest e-wallets, eSewa and Khalti. Smaller banks, finance companies and payment firms do not station staff at the centre but must name liaison officers who can be reached at any hour. An operations committee is chaired by the director of NRB’s Payment Systems Department, while a Nepal Police superintendent runs the floor day to day.
The system is not finished. The Cyber Bureau’s spokesperson said the case-management software is still being built, and early complaints may be logged in spreadsheets until it is ready.
Why it matters
Digital payments have grown quickly in Nepal, and so has fraud. Police were receiving roughly 200 to 300 financial fraud complaints a day before the centre opened, according to stakeholders quoted by Republica in October. Officials have repeatedly said that slow freezing is the main reason victims rarely get their money back.
For banks and wallet providers, the centre means faster, more formal duties: they must respond to freeze requests in minutes, not days, and stay reachable around the clock. For fintech firms, it also brings closer visibility from the central bank, which a local industry figure welcomed as a step toward better oversight.
The approach mirrors what other Asian countries have built. Malaysia’s National Scam Response Centre (NSRC), reached through the 997 hotline, now runs 24 hours a day and works on the same principle: report fast so banks can block the money while it is still traceable. Nepal’s version goes further by placing wallet and telecom staff on site from day one.
What to watch
- Whether the centre’s software is completed and how quickly a single public hotline is confirmed and promoted.
- Recovery figures: how much stolen money is actually frozen and returned in the first months.
- Whether NRB turns the response times into binding rules for all banks and payment service providers.
Related on FinDeskAsia: How Malaysia’s payment system works · PayNet and the regulators
Sources: The Kathmandu Post (Nov 2026); OnlineKhabar (Nov 2026); ICT Frame (Nov 2026); Republica (Oct 2026); The Star (Mar 2026)
