Wirecard Scandal Could Give Fintech a Bad Name
Moving money from point A to point B for a small fee shouldn't be exciting. It's time to make sure all the proper controls are in place.
The power of enthusiastic groupthink.
Photographer: Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images
The spectacular blowup of German fintech darling Wirecard AG, which has seen $12 billion wiped off its market value in three days, is making some old-school bankers feel good about themselves.
“When will we wake up to what a fintech really is?” Daniel Baal, the head of French cooperative bank Credit Mutuel, tweeted over the weekend. When questioned why his company seemed so proud of its own forays into the field, Baal shot back that its homegrown unit wasn’t overvalued or overexposed in the media, but was part of a “solid,” regulated banking group.