Investigators links malware used by Russian and eastern European cybergangs to a string of bank heists that culminated in the record-breaking theft of US$81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, people familiar with the probe said.

US attorney's office opens probe of cyber heist of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a law enforcement source says.

The government should carry out further investigation to find out whether the suspected Bangladesh Bank officials were really involved in the $101 million cyber heist, says Mohammed Farashuddin, head of the three-member body that probed the theft.

An inquiry has been launched against two executive directors of Bangladesh Bank for their alleged involvement in corruption and misappropriating money.

Hours before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York approved four fraudulent requests to send $81 million from a Bangladesh Bank account to cyber thieves, the Fed branch blocked those same requests because they lacked information required to transfer money, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The chief executive of secure messaging system SWIFT says the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, by criminals sending fraudulent payment instructions via SWIFT, would force the organisation to shrink and review its strategy.

A US congressional committee launches a probe into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's handling of the cyber theft of $81 million from one of its accounts held by the central bank of Bangladesh, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

A government-formed committee which investigated the US$101 million heist from Bangladesh central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York submits its full report to the finance minister. It has found SWIFT and others responsible for the heist.

Bangladesh police are reviewing a nearly forgotten 2013 cyber heist at the nation’s largest commercial bank for connections to February's $81 million heist at the country's central bank, a senior law enforcement official says.

More than three months have passed since $81 million was stolen in a brazen cyber-heist from Bangladesh's central bank and sent to Manila - yet authorities in the Philippines appear no closer to nabbing those who laundered most of the money through a bank and casinos.

Bangladesh asks SWIFT to help its police question technicians sent by the global financial network to Dhaka to connect a new bank transaction system months before February's $81 million cyber heist, according to a source and an e-mail seen by Reuters today.

The parliamentary standing committee on finance asks the central bank to submit a list of organisations and companies, whose names have been published in the Panama Papers.

Global financial network SWIFT is primarily responsible for the hacking of Bangladesh central bank reserve, says head of the committee probing into one of the biggest cyber-heists in the world. SWIFT was responsible to ensure around 13 security measures for the safety of the system but it did not do so, he adds.

SWIFT told its bank customers that they are responsible for securing computers used to send messages over its global network, which was used to steal some $81 million from a Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Fed in February.

SWIFT on Monday rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians with the global messaging system made the nation's central bank more vulnerable to hacking before an $81 million cyber heist in February.

Bangladesh's central bank became more vulnerable to hackers when technicians from SWIFT, the global financial network, connected a new bank transaction system to SWIFT messaging three months before a $81 million cyber heist, Bangladeshi police and a bank official allege.

In the years leading up to hackers stealing $81 million from a Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, senior Fed security officials examined the risk of such an attack - but judged the prospect unlikely, bank sources said.

The six visiting Interpol officials teaming up with the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday started forensic analysis of

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says instant and proper measures taken by the Bangladesh Bank after the heist from its fund with Federal Reserve Bank of New York prevented hacking of a larger sum of money.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) assures that the money stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh Bank will be returned to its government as soon as possible but procedures have to be followed.