BERLIN: The head of German finance watchdog Bafin is stepping down as part of an overhaul triggered by last year’s spectacular collapse of payments provider Wirecard, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Friday.
“The Wirecard scandal revealed that the German financial regulator needs a reorganisation to fulfil its supervisory role more effectively,” a ministry statement said. Scholz thanked Bafin chief Felix Hufeld for eight years of service and said the revamp would include “a fresh start” at the top of the agency.
Digital payments company Wirecard, once a rising star in the fintech sector, filed for bankruptcy last June after admitting that 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) was missing from its accounts.
The company’s former CEO Markus Braun and several other top executives have since been arrested on fraud and money laundering charges.
The scandal has put intense scrutiny on Bafin, which has been accused of lax oversight and of missing early warning signs that allowed the accounting fraud to go on for years.
The Financial Times first raised suspicions about Wirecard’s business activities in a series of articles in 2019, but these apparently did not prompt German authorities to look at Wirecard more closely. In a much-criticised move, Bafin instead responded by announcing a probe into FT journalists.
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