SNS/SHoF Finance Panel: How could Wirecard fail?

There are many controls on a listed firm. How could they fail in the case of the German fintech company Wirecard? Was this a rare, random event or is there a structural problem? Is there a need for regulatory actions on a European level?

Wirecard was in 2018 Europe´s largest fintech company and a rare German tech company that could take on Silicon Valley. Today it has filed for insolvency, the CEO is arrested, and the CFO has disappeared, wanted by the German police.

In the webinar we tried to explain what happened with Wirecard. Our distinguished panel consists of Nicolas Véron, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and Bruegel, Annika Poutiainen, Chair at Council for Swedish Financial Reporting Supervision and Erik Thedéen, Director General at the Finansinspektionen, the Swedish FSA, and a member of the Management board of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

The Finance Panel is a meeting forum covering topics in finance hosted by SNS and the Swedish House of Finance.

Swedish House of Finance (SHoF) at the Stockholm School of Economics is Sweden’s national research center in financial economics.

 

Participants

Katja Langenbucher, Professor of Banking and Corporate Law, Goethe University, House of Finance

Annika Poutiainen, Chair at Council for Swedish Financial Reporting Supervision

Erik Thedéen, Director General at the Finansinspektionen, the Swedish FSA, and a member of the Management board of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)

Nicolas Véron, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and Bruegel in Brussels

 

The webinar was held in English and was moderated by Pehr Wissén, Swedish House of Finance.