How a rising German FinTech star crumbled – The National

How a rising German FinTech star crumbled – The National

Wirecard's collapse offers lessons for regulators around the world





























Wirecard's headquarters in Aschheim, near Munich. The company said last week 77 potential buyers for parts of the business had signed confidentiality agreements so far. About 60 of these were for its North American assets. AFP  











On April 27, accountancy firm KPMG published the findings on an independent audit commissioned by German payment processing giant Wirecard in the hope that it would quash much of the negative publicity that had surrounded the company over the previous 18 months. It didn't.



Instead, KPMG's verdict - that it couldn't verify whether vast amounts of the company's revenue and earnings were genuine - sent Wirecard into a downward spiral that ended with it entering into insolvency on June 25 after declaring a €1.9 billion (Dh8.2bn) hole in its accounts, and the arrest of several of key executives on suspicion of accountancy fraud.



The company had previously been lauded as a European FinTech star and was the newest member of the Dax 30 - the index of the biggest German companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange