Each Saturday, in "Zoom out", Axel de Tarlé returns to an economic or societal fact that marked the week. This week, back on the revelations of journalists from the Financial Times, behind the fall of a German financial giant specializing in payment by bank card, Wirecard.
Germany is shaken by a huge financial scandal: a multibillion-euro scam that brought down one of the largest financial institutions in the country! Tell us.
It is not good to rejoice in the misfortune of others. The Germans even have an expression for this: schadenfreude , malicious joy. But this is an area where the Germans are struggling, finance. The German banks are free to choose: moribund or fit because they cheat! It is true. This was the case with the Deutsch Bank.
But that is nothing compared to the scandal of the moment: Wirecard, one of the stars of the world of finance which was worth on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange 24 billion euros, twice the Societe Generale. A company specializing in payment by bank card, except that it tampered with its figures. And no one saw anything except the journalists from the Financial Times . They are the ones who smelled the blow. The scandal finally broke out. And Wirecard, just went bankrupt this week. Finished !
However, the banks are extremely watched! It is worrying to see that a financial institution of this size (more than twenty billion) can thus disappear due to fraud.
It is a shame for the Germans. Besides, they recognize it. But it's even worse than that, because when there were rumors of embezzlement, instead of going to investigate to find out what it was, the German financial authorities, on the contrary, investigated to find out who was spreading thus these rumors and sought to damage the reputation of the company.
Proof that the press is sometimes very useful for the proper functioning of institutions. Without the Financial Times journalists , the scam would continue to run.
This is the other lesson from this case. Fortunately, there are still a few newspapers, such as the Financial Times , that have the means to investigate and report scandals. It is a very useful reminder, at a time when newspapers are increasingly abused by the fall of the advertising market and competition from social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.
Except it has nothing to do with it. These social networks mainly convey hysteria rather than information, to the point that Twitter is now forced to warn about the veracity of the tweets of Donald Trump, the President of the United States. That is to say ! So, yes, in this hysterical world of social networks, it's nice to see that there is still old-style journalism, capable of investigating and updating a financial scandal that amounts to billions of euros .