British regulator brought in to sort out German watchdog

Germany has tapped Mark Branson from Swiss economic regulator Finma to head its beleaguered economic watchdog Bafin, the finance ministry explained on Monday.

Mr Branson, a British-born mathematician with Swiss and British citizenship, will just take up the new write-up “in the middle of the yr”, the ministry explained.

He will do well Felix Hufeld, who was sacked in January over Bafin’s failure to avoid the Wirecard fraud – Germany’s biggest accounting scandal in living memory.

Mr Branson will be charged with employing reforms declared in February built to allow the regulator to establish fraud much more swiftly and proficiently, with a even bigger concentration on whistleblowers.

With Mr Branson “at the helm”, the regulator will continue with the reforms aimed at providing it “much more tooth”, finance minister Olaf Scholz explained.

Mr Branson, 52, has been head of the Swiss economic market regulator Finma considering the fact that 2014, having joined in 2010.