The collapse of payments company Wirecard has led to the European Union looking into the activities of Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin.With creditors owed almost $4 billion, the demise of Wirecard could become one of Germany’s biggest ever financial scandals. The European Commission (EC) has asked the EU’s markets watchdog, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), to examine BaFin’s conduct to determine whether its responses to allegations of impropriety at Wirecard were adequate.
Rahman Ravelli’s Legal Director Neil Williams gave his thoughts on the fall-out from the Wirecard crash to Thomson Reuters’ Regulatory Intelligence, which used them in an article. Neil explained that the EC asking ESMA to investigate BaFin puts the German financial regulator under pressure to justify its actions in relation to Wirecard. But he stressed that other regulators, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, will also be watched closely by the EC regarding their conduct towards the payments company.
The full article can be read here.
