The former flagship Fintech Wirecard filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The spectacular case will also have after-effects on Germany’s financial startups, say important industry representatives.
It’s been a week since Wirecard slipped into the biggest crisis in its corporate history; not a day has passed without further bad news from Aschheim. On Thursday morning there was a provisional high point: The Dax group declared bankruptcy. The exact consequences for the payment service provider are not yet foreseeable. But the Wirecard case will have an impact on the whole fintech scene – that is already certain.
Ramin Niroumand, head of Finleap
“After the Wirecard scandal, the entire fintech scene must not be taken into custody. There is no systemic problem among German finance startups.
In retrospect, you can now say: I always knew. And I can also report experiences with Wirecard from my early career where I had question marks. But I do not find it appropriate to make such statements afterwards. And in the years before that? In my view, it is not up to the fintech scene to judge the seriousness of a player. There are rating agencies, auditors, banks and the supervisory authority.
I cannot imagine that the Wirecard Bank will survive – it has no future. Because the reputation damage is too big. This is of course an opportunity for our portfolio company Solarisbank, which offers platform banking. “
Miriam Wohlfarth, managing director of Ratepay
“Our flagship fintech is on the ground. And that also means that trust in the industry is getting worse and that hurts me a lot. I am especially sorry for the many good employees at Wirecard.
The story also sends out the signal that supervision has failed. In the future, she will most likely have to retrofit tech expertise.
Why didn’t many see it coming? We were blinded by the good and innovative products. High margins can be achieved in the payment business with gaming and entertainment, which is why the figures did not seem unrealistic to me. If a criminal lives with you in the house, you can often not imagine it. It cannot always be judged from the outside.
Without the Wirecard Bank, an important partner for fintechs would be missing – and I could imagine that innovations will be inhibited in the short term. ”
Jochen Siegert, manager of Traxpay
“It looked to me like the company was working on the verge of legality. A few irregularities, a few million that are missing. But I would never have expected such a scale. I couldn’t imagine that this would have slipped through for auditors like EY and KMPG. That must have been a very well done scam.
It will be more difficult for financial startups to build trust with customers in the future. In addition, the supervisory authority will be repositioned – and will take stronger action in the future. This will put even more time and effort on the part of young companies in this topic. ”
Marcus Mosen, ex-CEO of Concardis
“I recently said in the Finance Forward podcast: ‚I would be surprised if there are still blatant topics coming up at Wirecard‘. But I also said that we should wait for the examiner’s attestation. Now the worst case has occurred. If criminal energy is involved – like in the diesel scandal or at Enron – then it is difficult for competitors like me to correctly assess the situation. It looks exactly like this at Wirecard.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong in my view to put the entire fintech industry under general suspicion. Wirecard had a whole vendor’s tray of products – and a complicated company structure. The company is not comparable to the fintechs in this country. That is why it would be unwise to react quickly with the regulation. In every startup, venture capitalists conduct a due diligence. I wonder who did this at Wirecard. Many shareholders, such as established banks that have granted loans, or the auditors have not covered themselves with fame.
For Wirecard, filing for bankruptcy is an opportunity to sell the healthy parts of the company. “
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