It has been confirmed that there was an embezzlement incident involving cash stored at a branch of NongHyup Bank. Despite NongHyup Bank President Kang Tae-young visiting a branch in March and conducting a direct inspection of the cash reserves while providing financial accident prevention training to employees, financial incidents continue to recur.
According to a report by ChosunBiz on the 22nd, NongHyup Bank detected that a newly appointed employee, identified as A, who holds a 6th level assistant manager position, embezzled cash reserves 13 times between December of last year and January of this year. Cash reserves refer to the money that branch staff possess to dispense to customers. A is reported to have embezzled around 20 million won. NongHyup Bank has reported A to the police, and the Uiwang Police Station is investigating the case.
At another branch in Gyeonggi Province, a newly appointed employee, identified as B, embezzled approximately 2 million won from the cash reserves this month. A NongHyup Bank official noted, "We detected the incident immediately the day after it occurred and took personnel action."
Embezzlement incidents involving cash reserves are one of the most frequently occurring types of incidents in banks. Bank employees store cash reserves below a certain limit individually and input their cash reserves into the computer system during the daily settlement of accounts process. However, even if it appears that the vault is being properly managed in the system, the actual vault may be empty. For example, an employee might input that there is 10 million won in cash reserves in the system, but only have 5 million won in the vault, temporarily utilizing the remaining 5 million won.
Previously, an embezzlement incident occurred at NongHyup Bank in November of last year, where a new employee stole 24 million won from an automated teller machine (ATM) cash reserve. While the amount is smaller compared to hundreds of billions of won embezzlement incidents involving document forgery and false loans, incidents targeting the loopholes in management continue to persist.
To strengthen internal controls, NongHyup Bank plans to improve its cash handling (receiving and disbursing cash) process starting this month. A key detail is that bank employees will hand over the entire amount of 50,000 won bills to the person in charge of overall cash management at the branch at the close of daily accounts and leave work. Currently, employees may retain up to 99 bills of each denomination after electronic registration, but for embezzlement prevention, it has been decided that all 50,000 won bills must be handed over.
Earlier, Shinhan Bank changed its cash handling guidelines in March to require that branch employees hand over 50,000 won notes to the person in charge of overall cash management daily. Woori Bank has introduced a smart cash management system with automatic settlement functions since March, aiming to eliminate the possibility of embezzlement by preventing employees from keeping cash after business hours.
An official from a major commercial bank noted, "In the past 2 to 3 years, financial incidents including embezzlement have significantly increased," and added, "There are many instances where we feel that moral hazard within banks is serious." Another official stated, "While cash embezzlement incidents are individual deviations, they are also a system issue," emphasizing the need for strict cash management and oversight of responsible personnel.