German minister demands regulatory rethink after Wirecard collapse

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz described as a scandal the collapse of Wirecard after the payments company disclosed a hole in its books that left it owing creditors almost $4 billion, adding it was a wake-up call for supervision.

“We must rethink our supervisory structures,” said Scholz, adding he had asked his ministry in the coming days to come up with some ideas.

“If legal, legislative, regulatory measures are needed, we will embrace them and implement them,” he said. “A scandal like Wirecard is a wake-up call that we need more monitoring and oversight than we have today,” he said.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)