BaFin reports employee for insider trading in Wirecard

BaFin, Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, announced it has filed a criminal complaint to the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart against an employee for insider trading in Wirecard, a German payment processor and financial services provider. 

The employee is working in the Securities Supervision Sector of BaFin and had sold structured products of Wirecard on 17 June 2020, a day before the company's announcement of the missing 1.9 billion euros from the company's books. 

BaFin conducted a special inspection and revealed the suspected case of insider trading. Then the regulator immediately suspended the employee and initiated disciplinary proceedings against the person.

In mid-October 2020, BaFin introduced stricter compliance rules for the personal securities transactions conducted by its staff members. Speculative financial transactions, i.e. short-term trading with derivative financial instruments or shares, for example, have since been prohibited.