, Columnist
Wirecard Still Raises Plenty of Questions
SoftBank offered financial backing this week to the German fintech darling. But does it really merit such a racy market valuation?
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Wirecard AG isn’t your average fintech darling. It is publicly listed, has a place in the prized Dax index of blue-chip German companies, and has a bigger market value ($18.3 billion) than Deutsche Bank AG.
When the Financial Times’s allegations of dodgy accounting pummeled the stock earlier this year, Wirecard wasn’t alone in rebuffing the reports: German regulators swooped in to protect the company by banning hedge funds from betting against it. The case is seen as central to trust in Germany’s markets.