Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
NongHyup Bank employee suspected of criminal breach of trust worth nearly $8.2 mil.
NH NongHyup Bank headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of NH NongHyup Bank
By Yi Whan-woo
An employee at NH NongHyup Bank is under suspicion of criminal breach of trust involving nearly 11 billion won ($8.2 million), the bank said Wednesday.
The company said it reported the case to the police after allegations were made in an internal inspection.
It added its personnel committee is discussing the level of punishment to be taken against the employee.
The employee has been in charge of customers' credit limits in relation to the amount of loans they can take out.
The employee allegedly committed crimes from March 2019 to November last year, with the amount involved estimated to be 10.9 billion won.
"We expect the police to figure out further details," the bank said.
The case at NH NongHyup Bank adds to a string of crimes committed by employees of financial services companies.
For instance, a Woori Bank employee was sentenced to jail last year for embezzling nearly 70 billion won from the bank over eight years before being arrested in 2022.
Whether the banking industry is committed to rooting out the crimes was called into question.
A study showed that five major banks — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup — did not seek police investigation and instead sought to settle at least one out of four fraud cases on their own from 2019 to 2023.
In a bid to tighten internal regulatory control and curb financial crimes, a revision bill has been proposed to hold CEOs of corresponding financial firms liable in the event of such crimes in the future.