Kathmandu, September 1

Nepal Rastra Bank — the central monetary authority — has formed a task force to probe the cyber attack on the banking sector that led to theft of money worth millions on Saturday.

After five Chinese citizens were found stealing money from ATMs of different banks, NRB called a meeting of stakeholders this evening. It decided to form a committee to investigate the issue under the coordination of NRB’s Executive Director Bom Bahadur Mishra, Laxmi Prapanna Niraula, spokesperson for the central bank, told THT.

“The committee will submit its report by Wednesday. As of now, our findings are preliminary on this scam,” said Niraula. According to him, the scammers are likely to have withdrawn Rs 16.87 million in Nepali currency from ATM cards of different banks and INR 12.4 million from ATM booths based in India through the use of Nepali ATM cards.

“As all these transactions cannot be seen in the core banking system of Nepal, we are yet to get details of this scam,” added Niraula.