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Wirecard’s core business in Europe and the Americas has been lossmaking for years, casting doubt on the economic substance of the parts of the company not directly affected by its accounting scandal.  The German payments group collapsed into insolvency last month after revealing that €1.9bn in cash in its accounts probably did “not exist”. For

Florida recorded a record number of new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, as a nationwide surge in cases forced the cancellation of many Independence Day celebrations — with the exception of two fireworks displays hosted by Donald Trump. A further 11,458 people in Florida tested positive over the previous 24 hours, the state’s health department reported on Saturday

The UK is in talks to join an EU plan to secure supplies of potential coronavirus vaccines in an important test of the co-operation required to tackle international emergencies after Brexit. London is assessing whether the advantages of the European bloc’s bargaining power to strike deals with international drugs companies outweigh the broader political desire

Texas’ governor has issued an order requiring face masks be worn in public in the state’s hardest-hit regions, the latest attempt to snuff the coronavirus outbreak that continues to spread in the US south and west. The executive order from Governor Greg Abbott, which applies to counties with 20 or more positive tests, also gives

California, Texas and Arizona were among the US states reporting a record number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday, touching off a new wave of concern about the speed at which the disease is spreading in emerging US hotspots ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend. California, which saw some of the earliest cases of coronavirus

Anthony Fauci has warned that America could see coronavirus cases soar to 100,000 a day, as concerns mount about the ability of the country to rein in the pandemic as states in the south and west see big spikes. “We’re now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we

Investment banking fees soared to a record $57bn in the first six months of the year, boosted by a series of lucrative debt sales as companies grabbed cash to tide them through the coronavirus crisis. Emergency financings by carmaker Ford, cruise line operator Carnival and aerospace and defence group Boeing were among the fundraisings that

Germany is to overhaul the way it regulates accountancy firms as it seeks “radical solutions” to contain the fallout from the huge fraud at payments group Wirecard. The government will terminate its contract with the country’s accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel, as early as Monday, according to officials briefed on the matter. The

Philippine regulators said they are investigating the local partner businesses of Wirecard in a probe that may finally map out the full extent of the south-east Asian country’s exposure to one of Europe’s worst accounting scandals. The investigation by the country’s National Bureau of Investigation and Anti-Money Laundering Council comes after the dramatic collapse of

Texas’ governor has ordered all bars to close and limited public gatherings to fewer than 100 people in the second attempt in as many days to snuff out a sudden jump in new coronavirus cases in the state. The executive order from Governor Greg Abbott, which also requires restaurants to cut their indoor dining to

Texas has slammed the brakes on its economic reopening in the face of a leap in coronavirus cases, halting plans to ease lockdown restrictions and banning elective surgeries in its four biggest cities to free up hospital beds. The order from Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, is the clearest sign yet that states in the

Global markets fell on Wednesday as persistent flare-ups in Covid-19 cases and the prospect of renewed trade tensions between the US and Europe knocked investor sentiment. Markets in Europe slumped, with the composite Stoxx 600 down 1.8 per cent following a mixed session in Asia. US stock futures dropped 1 per cent. Stocks extended their

Wirecard’s former chief executive Markus Braun has been arrested on suspicion of false accounting and market manipulation, Munich prosecutors said on Tuesday morning. The prosecutors are accusing Mr Braun of artificially inflating Wirecard’s balance sheet and the company’s revenue in an attempt to make the company look more attractive for investors and clients. The prosecutors

Wirecard warned on Monday that its previous descriptions of a business at the heart of the accounting scandal engulfing the German payments group were “not correct” and that it was likely that €1.9bn in missing cash does not exist. The former champion of Germany’s tech sector said it was looking at whether business at a

Top Democrats are expecting a fired US prosecutor to testify in hearings against Donald Trump, heaping pressure on the president as he struggles to reignite his election campaign. Geoffrey Berman, whose sacking as Manhattan US attorney over the weekend has set off a firestorm of criticism, has been called to appear before hearings into claims

The Trump administration late on Friday sought to abruptly remove the Manhattan US attorney who has overseen several investigations of the president’s allies. The move triggered a remarkable power struggle as the US attorney, Geoffrey Berman, said he would not leave until the Senate had confirmed his replacement. “I learned in a press release from

Wirecard’s chief executive Markus Braun has resigned with immediate effect as the payment group’s share price continued to collapse a day after it revealed that €1.9bn of cash was missing. Shares in Germany’s once high-flying payments firm have crashed 80 per cent in two days of chaotic trading after it said auditors at EY were

Shares in Wirecard crashed on Thursday after the German payments group said €1.9bn of cash was missing and that “spurious cash balances” might have been provided to its auditor by a third party.  The once high-flying company was told by EY that there were indications a trustee of Wirecard bank accounts had attempted “to deceive

The US has thrown into disarray plans for a new global tax framework for technology companies after suspending talks with European countries — and warning them of retaliatory measures if they press ahead with their own taxes. In a letter to four European finance ministers seen by the Financial Times, US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin

At least twenty Indian soldiers have been killed in clashes with Chinese troops in the Himalayas, a sharp escalation of the long-running border dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbours. India’s army said on Tuesday that the deaths overnight had followed a “violent face-off” in the strategically important Galwan Valley. Having earlier said three soldiers had been

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that gay and transgender workers are protected by federal civil rights laws in a landmark anti-discrimination decision. Two Republican appointees joined the court’s four liberal justices to decide the issue in a 6-3 ruling that said the 1964 Civil Rights Act also applied to gay and transgender people,

Emerging economies have raised more than $83bn through the international bond market since the beginning of April, just weeks after a push by the G20 to offer many poorer nations debt relief. Data collated by the Institute of International Finance, an industry association, show that developing economies are financing their coronavirus-driven deficits by accessing the

US health officials have warned the country is “not out of the woods” with coronavirus, urging people to wear masks and maintain distance from each other even at mass events such as protests and political rallies. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged the public on Friday not

US stocks staged a partial recovery on Friday from a sharp global sell-off sparked by renewed fears over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 was up around 1 per cent in early afternoon trading in New York, a day after suffering its sharpest one-day fall since March. For the week the S&P

Federal Reserve officials predicted that they would keep interest rates close to zero until at least the end of 2022, as the US central bank said it remained “committed” to bolstering an economy hit by the pandemic. The dovish tone from the Fed, which is expecting the US economy to contract by 6.5 per cent

EU member states including Ireland are urging Brussels to take into account the shock of a hard Brexit in addition to the pandemic in its response to the bloc’s gravest postwar economic slump. Diplomats from Ireland and Belgium have said in recent discussions addressing the bloc’s budget and €750bn recovery fund that they could be

Hong Kong-based hedge funds are considering uprooting their operations as China prepares to impose sweeping national security legislation on the Asian financial hub. Fund managers and traders in the former British colony are expressing concerns that the industry could find itself in Beijing’s crosshairs, after the Chinese Communist party approved a plan to impose national

The international shipping industry has warned of a threat to global trade from a mounting crisis on board merchant vessels, with up to 400,000 crew stranded either at sea or at home by travel restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic. One German-owned tanker last week refused to sail unless replacement crew could be brought in,

Protests over the killing of George Floyd gained in number across the world on Saturday as Washington DC prepared for the biggest demonstration yet in the US capital. The protests, now in their 12th consecutive day, have shone a harsh light on American policing practices, with scenes of police violence against protesters adding to the

US employers unexpectedly added 2.5m jobs in May, sending the jobless rate down to 13.3 per cent and easing fears over the economic hit inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic on the world’s largest economy. After more than 20m lay-offs during the month of April, some of the hardest-hit industries began hiring workers again, including in