Malaysia’s central bank said yesterday it was the victim of a cyber attack in which hackers sought to steal money using fraudulent wire transfers, the latest in a series of electronic heists at financial institutions around the world.

While Bank Negara Malaysia said no funds were lost in the incident, which it identified on Tuesday and involved falsified wire-transfer requests over the SWIFT bank messaging network, it is the second known hack of a central bank after the 2016 theft of US$81 million (RM312.86 million at current rate) from Bangladesh Bank.

The Bangladesh heist, which also involved fraudulent SWIFT transfer requests, led financial institutions around the globe to bolster security. Authorities have yet to capture the masterminds behind that attack...