Germanys finance ministry grants more independence for financial watchdog

BERLIN Reuters – Germany‘s BaFin will have more leeway and independence in conducting its work as the country’s financial watchdog, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

BaFins reputation was battered after it failed to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse in 2020 of the German payments company Wirecard, a former bluechip hailed as a German success story and once worth 28 billion.

Some financial experts had said that as part of the finance ministry, BaFin may face too much influence from politicians if supervision efforts rub against their goals, adding that BaFin needed greater independence from Berlin to restore credibility.

According to new cooperation principles between the two authorities presented on Tuesday, BaFin should only inform the ministry in critical cases, for example when a large corporation is involved or if there is an impact on financial markets stability.

BaFins president Mark Branson said the new principles set a contemporary and riskoriented framework for the authority.

“As financial supervisors, we need to be able to act boldly, clearly, quickly and responsibly,” he said.