After the forced resignation of former BaFin chief Felix Hoffield two months ago, Branson was assigned to clean the regulator’s cracked blanks. Previously, he was still active in Swiss bank UBS. Branson has a British and Swiss passport.
Huffield was forced to leave the field in January due to his negligence of overseeing Wirecard. The payment processor dropped last year due to widespread scams. It was even more painful that a number of BaFin employees had shares in the German tech company and the regulator was going after the journalists who exposed the scam.
Successful IT company
Before the scandal, Wirecard was hailed as a successful technology company. On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the stock has long been to the taste of many investors, especially after the upgrade to the index of major German companies.
German Finance Minister Olof Schultz confirmed earlier this year that the case in Wirecard showed that there were shortcomings in the supervisory system. He noted that reforms are necessary to increase effectiveness.
Marcus Brown, the former CEO of Wirecard, is still imprisoned for his role in the fraud scandal.
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