Nepal Rastra Bank has reduced the daily cash withdrawal limit at ATMs to Rs60,000, down from Rs100,000. Furthermore, ATMs will only dispense a maximum of Rs20,000 per transaction instead of Rs25,000.

Following the recent case of hacking by Chinese citizens who attempted to steal Rs18.9 million out of the ATMs of seven banks, the regulator has come up with the move.

It has also halted cross banking transactions at ATMs.

However, card holders can still withdraw money from ATMs installed by the card issuing bank.

Laxmi Prapanna Niroula, spokesperson of Nepal Rastra Bank said the central bank has taken the move as part of risk management. “As the investigation of the case is still ongoing, we have taken the steps as an assurance to safeguard depositors’ money,” said Niroula.