Bangladeshi investigators have identified 20 foreigners - 12 Philippine nationals and eight Sri Lankans - suspected to have been involved in the cyber heist of tens of millions of dollars from its central bank, a police officer said on Monday.

The officer gave no other details, but the suspects appear to be those who received some of the payments, and not the hackers, Reuters said.

The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems between Feb. 4 and Feb. 5 and tried to steal nearly $1 billion from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Most of the payments were blocked but $81 million was routed to accounts in the Philippines and diverted to casinos there. Another $20 million was sent to an institution in Sri Lanka but the transfer was reversed because the hackers misspelled the name of the institution, raising a red flag at the routing bank.

Mohammad Shah Alam, a senior officer at the criminal investigation department of the Bangladesh police, said Interpol had helped identify the foreigners suspected to be involved in one of the largest cyber heists in history.

"We have identified at least 20 foreigners with name and full particulars who we believe were involved," Alam told reporters.

(With inputs from Reuters)