Jens Weidmann, president of Bundesbank, has called for German regulators to toughen up its auditing and accounting rules or risk facing another Wirecard scandal.
Wirecard collapsed in June after a $2.1bn hole in its finances was discovered. In the weeks that followed, authorities around the world have been hard at work unearthing what could be one of the biggest financial frauds ever. Several of the company’s top brass have been arrested or are wanted by the authorities.
They are accused of having inflated the business’ finances, thus making the company seem more attractive for customers and investors.
It is against this background that Weidmann told the Funke media group that “Wirecard is a scandal and we have to do more to prevent it in the future.”
For instance, he called for the audit process as well as the tasks, powers and liability of auditors to be reconsidered, Reuters reported.
He is not the only one to call for stricter oversight of the sector.
In early July, German finance minister Olaf Scholz called for lawmakers to overhaul the regulatory oversight of the financial markets. Scholz plans to give BaFin more power to look into businesses’ finance reports, regardless of whether or not they have a banking section.
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