The Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), Adrián Vázquez Lázara (Renew Europe, Spain) and the Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Irene Tinagli (S&D, Italy), sent a letter to the European Commission, on Thursday 23 July, asking it to draw lessons for the future of the European supervisory framework from the accounting scandal involving the German payment service provider Wirecard (see EUROPE 12512/15).
The letter, prepared by the Coordinators of the two committees, asks the Commission to assess, in more detail, whether supervisory control had been exercised effectively and appropriately by all authorities concerned, in particular by the German authority, BaFin, but also by the European financial supervisory authorities.
This analysis should include the lessons learned from the Danske Bank scandal, in which the inaction of the European Banking Authority had indeed ben heavily criticised (see EUROPE 12244/1), say MEPs.
The letter also questions the Commission on the conclusions it draws from this case, including “if direct supervision at European level in specific areas could have prevented this failure”.
MEPs also want to know whether certain shortcomings in the EU audit regulatory framework could have played a role. Some, like Luis Garicano (Renew Europe, Spain) and Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany), had already called on the EU to reform its auditing rules when the scandal broke (see EUROPE 12512/15).
At the end of June, the Commission asked ESMA to carry out a preliminary investigation into the adequacy of German supervision in this case (see EUROPE 12515/13). ESMA is expected to conclude its assessment by 30 October (see EUROPE 12528/4).
According to MEPs, the scope of the investigation should be expanded to also assess the risk of money laundering as well as the role that Wirecard’s Dublin subsidiary might have played in the fraud.
“We call on you to act decisively with a view to upholding European Law by pursuing ‘breach of union law’ proceedings if shortcomings are discovered” write MPs.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/2CHid2E (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)