A former employee of Higashi-Nippon Bank, a medium-size regional bank based in Tokyo, was arrested Monday for allegedly withdrawing money from customers' savings accounts without their consent, police said.

Masao Shiraishi, 50, a former section chief at the bank's Itabashi branch, is suspected of transferring around 50 million yen from several customers' accounts to his own account between December 1998 and last May.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes he stole money from depositors even before 1998, amassing about 100 million yen, according to police sources.