A Bangladeshi man was arrested Wednesday and charged with trying to detonate a 1,000-pound car bomb outside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a target he chose in a bid to disrupt the U.S. economy, authorities said.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis was taken into custody in a lower Manhattan hotel room after repeatedly using a cellphone to try to detonate material that he believed was a bomb in a van parked outside the New York Fed, officials said.

Mr....