Germany plans to overhaul regulator after Wirecard scandal

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has announced plans to restructure financial services regulator Bafin after the body’s reputation took a blow in the scandal surrounding payment services company Wirecard.It was now the task of legislators to “review and improve the protective mechanisms,” Scholz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.Bafin must be given a direct right of intervention and the current two-stage examination procedure must be abolished, Scholz said. Furthermore, Bafin needed to be able to “conduct special audits on a large scale at any time.”In addition, he w…