Heads of BaFin and auditor supervision were dismissed. Planned a fresh start at the top of financial supervision.
BaFin boss Hufeld
The German federal government is drawing personnel conclusions from the accounting scandal involving the payment processor Wirecard. At the financial supervisory authority BaFin, the previous boss Felix Hufeld and the deputy boss Elisabeth Roegele have to leave. Successors have not yet been named. The head of the German auditor supervision Apas, Ralf Bose, was also fired – he had already been released in mid-December.
Bose was criticized for share deals in connection with the accounting scandal. The termination by the responsible Federal Office for Economics and Export Control took place on January 13th. Apas oversees auditors in Germany. In the Wirecard case, EY auditors had approved financial statements for years and are confronted with the accusation of not looking closely enough.
BaFin is being restructured
The criticized financial supervision BaFin is to be reorganized. The scandal surrounding Wirecard AG revealed that the German financial supervisory authority needed a reorganization in order to be able to fulfill its supervisory function more effectively, said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. He announced that the results of an investigation will be presented to the Bafin in the next week. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance.
The former Dax group Wirecard, now insolvent, had granted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros. The Munich public prosecutor's office assumes that the company has shown fictitious profits since 2015.
