The financial supervisory authority BaFin wants to take a close look at the supply chain financing during the balance sheet control in the coming year.
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) announced on Monday in Bonn that this will be the main focus of the 2021 consolidated financial statements.
As a direct consequence of the Wirecard scandal, the financial supervisors also want to check in individual cases whether the specified means of payment and assets are actually available.
BaFin was accused of failure in the multi-billion Wirecard fraud scandal.
The acting Federal Finance Minister and designated Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) initiated a reform of the supervisory authority subordinate to his ministry after the accounting scandal at the payment service provider.
This includes, among other things, more competencies and rights of intervention.
It is unclear whether supply chain finance is recognized on the balance sheet
The BaFin explained that supply chain financing is being used more and more frequently as corporate financing.
The main purpose of the supervisors is to look at how such transactions are presented on the balance sheets and cash flow statements.
The aim is to check whether the companies also provide the necessary information in the notes and management report.
Supply chain financing recently hit the headlines internationally in connection with the multi-billion Greensill bankruptcy.
With this financing method, also known as "reverse factoring", a financing company takes on, for example, claims from a supplier and pays them to the other party at a discount.
The company bundles the receivables into securities and sells them to investors.
As of next year, BaFin will be solely responsible for the control of 531 companies on the regulated market.
The supervisors had set up the balance sheet control group for this purpose.
According to BaFin, it should have around 60 employees.