Germany is terminating its contract with its existing financial regulator Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP) after 2021 in an overhaul of its accounting oversight as a result of the Wirecard balance sheet scandal.
The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection is setting up a new framework for financial regulations in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance. FREP was asked to probe Wirecard in early 2019 by BaFin, Germany’s banking regulator, who could not conduct the investigation on its own because of the existing structure that gave FREP the right to conduct the first probe. FREP has not commented on the results of its probe.
