Germany Wants European SEC After Wirecard Scandal

Germany’s Finance Ministry is in favor of setting up a European financial supervisory authority modeled along the lines of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission to prevent financial market scandals like Wirecard, a government official said.

The ministry is preparing a package of measures to strengthen national supervision and to harmonize regulation and control on the European level. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has already announced that he wants special investigation powers to be given to the national financial market watchdog BaFin to help uncover financial market manipulation.

Wirecard’s shock announcement last month that a quarter of its balance sheet ...