Chapter 201: The Crack Begins from Within (5)

It was just past 3:01 a.m. in Seoul.

The sound of a vibrating phone rang through the bedroom.

Manager Kim Ji-hoon groped through the darkness and picked up his phone.

Narrowing his eyes, he read the words on the screen.

[NY Branch]

“What is it?”

He answered the call in a cracked voice.

“This is Kim Ji-hoon from the Global Business Headquarters.”

-Manager Kim!

A frantic voice burst out.

-We have a major problem. Corres just notified us that dollar clearing has been temporarily suspended.

“What?!”

Kim Ji-hoon shot upright by reflex.

What kind of nonsense was this in the middle of the night?

“What do you mean, suspended? What exactly has been suspended?”

His heart began to pound rapidly.

-It is not a specific transaction… They say they are withholding all USD processing under Woojin Bank’s name.

“What?!”

-They also sent an email saying full processing is impossible until it is converted to enhanced review.

Kim Ji-hoon leaped out of bed. This was no time to sit still.

“Send the email to our side first.”

-Yes, understood.

Manager Kim Ji-hoon’s hands trembled.

He opened the laptop at home and logged into the company email.

He was so flustered that he entered the wrong password twice.

At last, the screen opened.

Just seeing the subject line made his mind go blank.

[URGENT] Temporary Suspension of USD Clearing - Enhanced Review Required

It said USD clearing had been temporarily suspended, and that relevant documents were being requested as the matter was converted to an enhanced review.

“Damn it!”

Kim Ji-hoon began pacing around the room in his pajamas.

He could not decide what to do. This was the first time something like this had happened.

“Woojin Bank’s dollar channel has been blocked….”

He held his phone and muttered.

“How far up the reporting line does this have to go…?”

After letting out a long sigh, he pressed the team leader’s number with trembling hands.

The dial tone rang.

Perhaps the man had been asleep, because he answered late.

-…What is it at this hour?

The team leader’s voice also sounded as if he had just woken up.

“Team Leader, this is Kim Ji-hoon. I think you need to come in right now.”

-Right now?

“Team Leader, New York just contacted us. We have been notified of a temporary suspension of dollar settlement.”

For a moment, silence fell.

-W-what exactly did they say?

“It appears to be because of Daehan Group.”

-Haa. Understood.

The team leader’s voice sank coldly.

-For now, record everything. Who said what, where, and when. Do not leave out a single word.

“Yes.”

Click.

The call ended. Kim Ji-hoon clenched his fist. Sweat seeped into his palm.

The roads of Seoul were quiet. It was well past 3 a.m., and sunrise was still far off. But the night was already over for the employees of Woojin Bank.

Assistant Manager Lee Su-jin burst out through her front door.

With her phone pressed to her ear, she fastened the buttons of her outerwear roughly.

As urgent as she felt, she pressed the elevator button over and over again.

“I-I am on my way. I am heading there now.”

Assistant Manager Park Min-sung, his tie only half done, also grabbed the steering wheel.

Whether the knot was a mess or his hair was sticking out in every direction, he had no time to care.

His car raced down the empty Olympic Expressway.

Employee Jeong A-reum, who lived in Mapo-gu, also ran out of her house after being woken from sleep.

She usually went around with her makeup carefully done, but she was leaving with a bare face.

3:40 a.m. Woojin Bank headquarters.

The sound of abrupt braking rang through the underground parking lot. Cars arrived one by one.

Employees gathered in front of the elevator, panting for breath.

Among them was even someone wearing their glasses upside down.

But no one pointed it out.

Everyone wore the same expression.

They were filled with tension and fear.

Lights came on one by one in the Woojin Bank headquarters building.

The Global Business Headquarters conference room was especially bright. Manager Kim Ji-hoon looked out at the darkness beyond the window and muttered like a man who had lost his mind.

“What on earth is happening?”

The printout in his hand was trembling faintly.

The conference room door flew open.

People poured in all at once.

Some entered while panting, some had barely managed to grab only their laptops in a daze, and some wore padded jackets over their suit jackets with their hair sticking out in every direction.

The once-empty Global Business Headquarters conference room filled up in an instant.

The first to speak was Team Leader Jo Chang-seop.

“Did you see the email from NY?”

“Yes.”

Manager Kim Ji-hoon opened his mouth.

“Where is the IT team right now? Are they on their way?”

“…….”

Team Leader Jo Chang-seop spoke as if deeply frustrated.

“There are more than ten remittances currently pending. If all of these stop….”

Kim Ji-hoon read the top of the printout again.

[Dollar settlement will be blocked for the time being. And we will examine it more strictly.]

That was all. But at a bank, those words were as good as a bomb.

Team Leader Jo Chang-seop rose from his seat and began pacing.

“First, we will organize it and report it upward.”

“Team Leader, the corporate remittances waiting right now….”

“Do you think I do not know that? That is exactly why we have to report it first.”

He looked at Manager Kim Ji-hoon and held out his hand.

“Give me the original email, the call record, and every timestamp.”

Kim Ji-hoon hurriedly handed over the printout and the laptop.

Jo Chang-seop read through them quickly.

His gaze stopped at the last line.

“They even requested documents.”

The air in the conference room grew even heavier.

A document request did not mean they wanted to negotiate.

It meant they intended to interrogate them.

“What is the NY branch saying right now?”

Manager Kim Ji-hoon swallowed dryly and answered.

“They said they will withhold all dollar transactions going out under Woojin Bank’s name, not just a specific transaction.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. All of them.”

Team Leader Jo Chang-seop roughly swept back his disheveled hair.

Everyone in the room knew what all of them meant.

Dollars could not be processed domestically like won.

Most outbound dollar remittances had to pass through channels where American banks handled settlement on their behalf.

If that channel was blocked, remittances, trade payment settlements, and overseas card settlements all entered a pending state. In other words, money stopped moving.

From one side of the conference room, someone spoke in a trembling voice.

“Will L/Cs… be blocked as well?”

Everyone looked at the team leader. Jo Chang-seop answered curtly.

“They will either be blocked or delayed. If it is both, that is the worst case.”

He gave an order.

“Contact the branches first. For anything on hold, get the lists first and sort them by company and amount.”

“What about Compliance?”

“I will handle that. Once the Vice President arrives, I will pass it on to him.”

Just then, the conference room door opened. Vice President Heo Sang-gyu entered.

He was the only one properly dressed in a suit.

Even though it was dawn, his shirt collar was neat and unruffled.

As soon as he entered, he skipped greetings and looked straight at the screen.

“How much have we confirmed?”

Jo Chang-seop immediately reported.

“The NY Corres bank has notified us of a temporary suspension of USD clearing. It has been converted to an enhanced review, and a document submission request has also come in.”

“The reason?”

“AML risk detection. Judging by the fact that it is related to a specific counterparty, it appears to be because of Daehan Group.”

Heo Sang-gyu’s eyebrow twitched faintly. He had expected it, but he had not expected them to react this quickly.

“Would alternative routing be possible?”

Someone asked cautiously. Heo Sang-gyu shook his head.

“It is easy to say. Changing the channel is not something that can be done with a few phone calls. That is the same as changing banks.”

He added coldly.

“There are two things we can do right now. Reduce the blocked sections, or prevent this from spreading.”

The conference room stirred. It was then that the outside grew noisy. The sound of an elevator stopping. The sound of hurried footsteps in the corridor.

The conference room door opened, and Bank President Kang Do-yun entered. He looked at the employees, then finally at Heo Sang-gyu.

“What happened?”

Instead of answering, Heo Sang-gyu pointed at the screen. Then, with his expression sharpened to the point of hostility, he spoke to the bank president.

“President Kang, what will you do now?”

Kang Do-yun only opened and closed his mouth, unable to say anything. In his mind, only the thought that this had to be dealt with quietly kept circling.

But reality had already come too far for that.

A phone rang again inside the conference room.

The caller displayed on the screen was.

[Daehan Group Finance Office]

At the same time, another call came in from the other side.

[Emergency Request for Confirmation from Relevant Government Ministry]

Dawn had not ended.

The true darkness of Woojin Bank was only just beginning.

Kang Do-yun’s gaze locked onto the phone screen.

He forced his face into a calm expression and said.

“I will take this call for a moment, then we will talk.”

After throwing out that one sentence, he left the conference room. As soon as the door closed, he hurried toward the far end of the corridor.

“Ah, Director. Yes. I just received the report.”

The other party was Han Ji-beom, Managing Director in charge of the Financial Strategy Headquarters at Daehan Group.

Kang Do-yun lowered his voice first.

The man who had been the president of the bank just moments ago was now tense and deferential, practically bowing through the phone.

“Yes, yes. There is no need to react too sensitively internally. We will handle it properly. Haha.”

“No, of course. We will make sure Daehan is not inconvenienced…. Of course. Of course.”

Despite the cold weather, sweat trickled down his forehead. He was extremely nervous, as if he had done something wrong.

“Yes, Director. The current situation… I understand it well too. That is why, all the more, we must not let things waver…. Yes, you do not need to worry. We will handle it well.”

Kang Do-yun spent a long time on the call, even bowing his head repeatedly. Though the other party could not see him, his body bent first on its own.

Inside the conference room, the moment the bank president left, all eyes turned back to Heo Sang-gyu.

A red marker blinked on the large screen.

Even the subject line alone made their throats burn dry.

Heo Sang-gyu spoke first.

“Team Leader Jo.”

“Yes.”

“Check it right now. Which ministry sent it, and who sent it? And what exactly do they want to confirm with us?”

Team Leader Jo Chang-seop tightened his grip on the mouse.

“The recipient is the Ministry of Economy and Finance.”

“I do not care whether it is the Ministry of Economy and Finance or the Financial Services Commission. Confirm who sent it. The name of the division in charge and the bureau director’s name too. And we need to know what they are requesting, so print it out exactly as it is.”

“Yes, Vice President.”

Jo Chang-seop gestured toward the printer.

“Assistant Manager Park Min-sung, print the email exactly as it came.”

“Yes.”

While the printer ran, calls continued to pour in from other departments. Heo Sang-gyu raised his voice.

“Do not respond to calls for the moment.”

He began writing on the conference room whiteboard.

-Temporary suspension of USD settlement(clearing).

-Conversion to enhanced review(EDD).

-Document submission request.

-List up pending cases.

Heo Sang-gyu pointed at each line and spoke.

“Break down every pending case. Handle the urgent ones according to their urgency first. Next, separate all Daehan-related transactions into a separate bundle. Anything we have to answer to the government must be based on facts as they are. No speculation can be included.”

Manager Kim Ji-hoon asked.

“Vice President, there is very little we can do right now.”

Heo Sang-gyu’s gaze sank coldly.

“That is right. There is not much we can do.”

He briefly steadied his breath and said.

“But we cannot sit here doing nothing just because we cannot do much. From that moment on, it is truly over.”

At that moment, the conference room door opened again. Kang Do-yun came in. The obsequious figure he had shown in the corridor was gone. In its place, he wore a confident expression.

“Daehan wants us to organize the situation a bit.”

Heo Sang-gyu asked for a beat late.

“Organize? What exactly are you saying we should organize?”

At Heo Sang-gyu’s unexpectedly hard attitude, Kang Do-yun answered while even waving his hand.

“No, do not misunderstand. I am saying we should keep it quiet so this does not grow unnecessarily.”

At those words, the employees gathered in the conference room pressed down their anger inwardly. But Heo Sang-gyu no longer held back.

“This is not something we can quietly move past. I am telling you, this is no longer a situation that becomes quiet just because we stay quiet!”