After the crash of the Dax group Wirecard, financial supervision Bafin comes under increasing pressure. It is said to have controlled the financial service provider only with minimal personnel expenditure. Bafin boss Hufeld has to go to the Bundestag finance committee on Wednesday.
According to a newspaper report, the collapsed payment service provider Wirecard was checked by German financial regulators with minimal effort despite numerous indications of possible balance sheet fraud. Although the supervisors had been suspected of manipulating the balance sheet at the Dax company since the beginning of 2019, the complex investigation of the allegations of fraud had essentially been entrusted to only one employee in the past 16 months, reports the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".
In February 2019, the financial supervisory authority Bafin saw the need to investigate the serious allegations at Wirecard as part of the security surveillance. However, according to applicable law, she commissioned the German Audit Office (DPR) to carry out this investigation. This Bafin inspection agency, also known as the "balance police", has only a few personnel.
Special test without result
According to "FAS", only a single employee at DPR was involved in the extensive Wirecard special test. The test center has not brought in any external help, the newspaper continues. To date, the Bafin has not received a result of the special inspection by the DPR.
Bafin President Felix Hufeld has to deal with the Bundestag Finance Committee next Wednesday to answer questions about the responsibility of his authority in the Wirecard disaster. The possible failure of Bafin has also called on the EU Commission. Commissioner responsible for financial market regulation Valdis Dombrovskis tweeted that the EU securities regulator Esma is now required to answer this question. Listed companies would have to be effectively controlled by "national regulators".
The German government has drawn initial consequences. The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of Finance want to terminate the contract with the DPR according to "Bild am Sonntag". The Federal Ministry of Finance did not want to comment on the report, nor did the DPR comment.
Wirecard filed for bankruptcy on Thursday due to a lack of 1.9 billion euros in the balance sheet and the risk of overindebtedness. It is one of the largest bankruptcies in the Federal Republic that shakes confidence in Germany's financial center. For the first time in the more than 30-year history of the Dax, one of its members collapsed.
. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Wirecard (t) Federal Financial Supervisory Authority