The government is launching a round-the-clock cyber response centre on Friday to tackle the growing incidence of financial fraud linked to digital banking, mobile wallets, online payment platforms and social media.

The Integrated Anti-Cyber Scam Response Centre has been established at the new building of the Nepal Police Cyber Bureau in Samakhusi under the Guideline on the Establishment and Operation of the Integrated Anti-Cyber Scam Response Centre 2026, approved by the home ministry.

Representatives from the Nepal Police, Nepal Rastra Bank, banks and financial institutions, payment service providers, telecommunications companies and internet service providers will work together at the centre. The aim is to freeze money before scammers can withdraw or transfer it, while identifying and dismantling the networks behind the fraud.

On Thursday, Nepal Rastra Bank issued a notice asking development banks, finance companies, payment system operators and payment service providers to submit the names, mobile numbers and email addresses of their designated liaison officers.

Representatives of commercial banks, Nepal Telecom, Ncell, payment service providers Khalti and eSewa, the Internet Service Providers Association, Nepal Police and the central bank will be required to maintain a physical presence at the centre around the clock, working in three shifts.

The centre will operate under strict response deadlines designed to address a major weakness in the handling of online fraud: delays caused by conventional investigation procedures and coordination between multiple agencies, which often leave victims unable to recover their money.

Under the prescribed workflow, complaints received through a hotline, information channels, the Nagarik App, Nepal Police App, the centre’s online portal or other platforms will be entered into a case management system within ten minutes. A reference number will be generated, and the incident will be classified and prioritised according to the nature and pattern of the suspected scam within the same period.

Within ten to 30 minutes, designated officials from banks, payment service providers and payment system operators are expected to identify the beneficiary account or wallet, the timing of transactions and the trail of funds.

Between ten and 60 minutes, the centre will send simultaneous requests to the relevant bank or wallet provider to freeze the account and funds. If the money has already been transferred to other accounts, officials will follow the transaction trail and seek to freeze the funds at each subsequent destination.

The same 60-minute window will be used to initiate parallel action to deactivate mobile numbers and SIM cards used in the scam, and to block phishing domains and IP addresses through internet service providers.

Home ministry spokesperson Ananda Kafle said preparations for the centre’s operation had been completed. “The ministry has already directed the relevant agencies to bring everyone together at the Cyber Bureau so that the centre can begin operations on Friday,” Kafle said. “We are bringing the call centre and representatives of the concerned agencies under one roof because delays in coordination can mean that money has already disappeared in digital fraud cases.”

The central objective is to prevent stolen money from leaving the financial system, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Deepak Raj Awasthi, who is also spokesperson for the Cyber Bureau.

In the past, poor coordination between agencies meant that even the exchange of official letters could take months, while victims were often forced to pursue cases for up to a year, he said. “Our main goal is to have everyone working together so that funds can be frozen immediately. We want to make sure scammers do not get the chance to withdraw the money,” Awasthi said.

Initially, complaints received through the hotline will be recorded in Excel sheets or an internal system. With bank representatives physically present at the centre, authorities expect account freezes to be processed more quickly. “This is a good example of a public-private partnership,” Awasthi said. “It will also give banks and financial institutions a closer understanding of the complexities of police investigations and the difficulties faced by victims.”

The guideline sets out a broader mandate to prevent and investigate fraud involving the misuse of electronic platforms, strengthen trust in the country’s financial system and protect the public from cyber scams.

Among its objectives are establishing a single point of contact that operates 24 hours a day, creating an effective mechanism to identify and freeze bank and wallet accounts as soon as a complaint is received, and disabling the digital tools used by scammers. These include mobile numbers, SIM cards, bulk SMS services, sender IDs, phishing domains, IP addresses, malicious links and applications.

The centre’s responsibilities will range from registering, classifying and prioritising complaints to tracing the movement of stolen money and identifying the accounts or wallets that ultimately benefit from the fraud.

The guideline provides for a three-tier structure to oversee the centre, coordinate operations and provide policy direction.

At the highest level, a 12-member steering committee will be chaired by the joint secretary of the Home Ministry’s Security and Coordination Division. Its members will include representatives from the Finance Ministry, the Law Division, the Information Technology and Electronic Governance Office, the Department of Money Laundering Investigation, the Office of the Attorney General, Nepal Rastra Bank, the Cyber Bureau, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the Nepal Bankers’ Association and the Internet Service Providers Association. The committee’s secretariat will be based at the Home Ministry.

The second tier will be an operations coordination committee chaired by the director of Nepal Rastra Bank’s Payment Systems Department, with its secretariat at the central bank. It will oversee the effectiveness of the centre’s operations, facilitate the analysis of money trails and collection of evidence, and monitor the performance of officials deployed at the centre.

At the operational level, a team led by a Nepal Police superintendent will handle the centre’s day-to-day work around the clock.

A software system called AFRS, which is under development, is expected to automate several functions. It will send immediate cyber threat and fraud alerts to banks and financial institutions, record incoming calls and complaints, and maintain a centralised database.

A total of 114 personnel will be deployed across three shifts, according to the guideline. The Nepal Police will provide 33 personnel, including nine in each shift and six for daily operations.

The country’s 20 Class ‘A’ commercial banks will contribute 60 representatives, with 20 deployed in each shift. Nepal Telecom and Ncell will provide six representatives between them, while Nepal Rastra Bank, the Internet Service Providers Association and the Development Bankers Association Nepal will each provide three. Khalti and eSewa will each assign one representative per shift, bringing their combined total to six.

Other development banks, finance companies, payment service providers and payment system operators will not be required to station representatives at the centre. Instead, they must designate liaison officers available around the clock to coordinate with the response team from their respective offices. The central bank has asked these institutions to submit their officers’ contact details.

The private technology sector has welcomed the initiative, but cautions that setting up the centre alone will not eliminate cyber fraud.

Sajan Sharma, chief executive of City Tech and a former president of Fintech Alliance Nepal, described the centre as a positive first step towards improving information-sharing across the financial technology sector.

“Monitoring and maintaining visibility over fintech companies at the central bank level is a welcome initiative,” Sharma said. “It can make the flow of information between the central bank and other participants in the ecosystem faster and more efficient.”

However, he said it would be unrealistic to expect cyber fraud to disappear overnight simply because the centre had been established.