LONDON — On the ground floor of the sprawling office complex that was, until recently, the home of The News of the World, a bespectacled clerk sat at a counter behind a reinforced glass cashier’s window. When reporters needed cash to pursue articles, they simply filled out a green form and, after getting authorization from the managing editor, exchanged it at the window for up to tens of thousands of pounds, said several journalists who worked there.

As the police on Tuesday arrested the former managing editor, Stuart Kuttner, on suspicion of conspiring to hack cellphones and pay police officers, that cash payment system has become the focus of inquiries by Scotland Yard and by News International, which owned the tabloid until it closed in July.

Mr. Kuttner, who is the 11th former News of the World employee arrested in the scandal surrounding the tabloid, personally authorized cash expenses until his retirement two years ago in his role as managing editor, said multiple current and former company employees, who, like most people interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing police investigations and to avoid jeopardizing their ties with the company. Mr. Kuttner did not respond to requests for comment.

A person familiar with the company’s internal investigation said the regular infusions of cash, usually also authorized by newsroom editors as well as Mr. Kuttner, contributed to the newsroom’s “wild West” atmosphere. The funds were used as advances on expenses and also to pay sources for articles, said the former journalists. So far a search by the company of the cash records has found more than $200,000 in payments to police officers from The News of the World, according to two people with knowledge of the documents.