Wirecard scandal widens

With the German payments processor Wirecard having declared insolvency, the country's regulator BaFin is coming under scrutiny to find out how €1.9bn in cash could simply have gone missing. The Frankfurter Allgemeine reported over the weekend that BaFin had just one person assigned to keeping track of Wirecard. The implication is that under-staffing meant that BaFin was unable to react appropriately when suspicions over the true health of Wirecard emerged in January 2019. A public prosecutor is now investigating former CEO Markus Braun along with other top managers at the company. But it's still unclear how €1.9bn that was supposed to be held on the company's accounts could simply not exist. In the meantime, Bild am Sonn is reporting that the German Finance Ministry will be cancelling its contract with the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel, which is supposed to supervise the financial statements of listed firms.