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Media reports put Wirecard in trouble and caused stock market prices to collapse. But the Dax group went on the offensive. Now there is a test report and the group is relieved. However, crucial data is lacking.
Payment service provider Wirecard sees further relief from KPMG’s special audit due to allegations of balance sheet tampering. The Dax Group announced that there were still no substantial findings in the test areas for the years 2016 to 2018 that would have required corrections.
The highly anticipated report of the special investigation was released to the group early in the morning, and is publicly available on the company’s website (here as a PDF). However, KPMG auditors at Wirecard found documentary and organizational weaknesses during the investigation period. These have already been identified by the group. Weaknesses are countered by creating a compliance department, which is supported by outside consultants.
“There is an obstacle to research”
However, some questions remain unanswered in the report. For example, KPMG cannot make any statement regarding the amount and existence of sales of the so-called third-party business criticized in the years 2016 to 2018 that exist and are correct, or that do not exist and are not correct. “In this regard, there is an obstacle to the investigation,” said KPMG.
Wirecard rejects the fact that sales and customer relationships have been manipulated. CEO Markus Braun had repeatedly claimed that sales and customer relationships for these third-party transactions were authentic. In addition to “deficiencies in internal organization, the cause was, in particular, the unwillingness” of the third party acquirer to “participate fully and transparently in this special investigation,” the report says. For example, data and evidence of transactions, as well as contracts between partners and external distributors, had not been previously available.
The Dax Group processes transaction volumes through external partners in countries where the company does not have its own licenses. The transparency of these revenues was criticized in a series of articles in the British financial newspaper “Financial Times”.
Accounting firm KPMG had been examining Wirecard’s books since October, after the “Financial Times” in particular caused riots and a drop in share prices. Wirecard’s usual auditor is EY. The balance sheet press conference scheduled for Thursday with the release of the annual financial statements will be postponed, he said.
