September 6: Although there is a facility to cover insurance for cyber risk in Nepal, hardly any of the banks in the country have purchased such policy to secure themselves from cyber theft.

The ‘Cyber Risk Protector’ insurance policy has come into effect since the start of the last fiscal year. However, none of the banks have insured themselves from cyber risk because of lack of mandatory provision.

Nepal Insurance has not been able to sell any of its Cyber Risk Protector policy till date.

“We have been taking initiative to insure banks from cyber risk. But none of the banks have shown interest to purchase this policy,” said Bikram Pandey, deputy general manager of Nepal Insurance.

“Cyber attacks in the past have underscored the importance of this policy. We are hopeful that this policy will get buyers now,” he added.

Pandey said that none of the banks agreed to insure themselves against cyber risk.

“We approached various banks and financial institutions after approval of this policy from the Insurance Board. But none of them showed any interest,” he further said.

This insurance policy is obviously expensive because of the small market and high risk associated with it, according to Pandey.

“The banks turned down our proposal saying that the insurance policy was quite expensive,” said Pandey, adding that they were not aware of the importance of cyber risk insurance.