Wirecard's insolvency and the sale of the group

analysisWirecard AG applied on 25 June 2020 to open insolvency proceedings over its assets, citing impending insolvency and over-indebtedness. On 29 June the Munich local court appointed the Munich lawyer Dr. Michael Jaffé as preliminary administrator, made the company's dispositions subject to his consent and prohibited enforcement, confirming an order of 25 June. The court opened the proceedings on 25 August 2020, dissolving the company, and appointed Jaffé administrator of Wirecard AG and of Wirecard Technologies, Wirecard Issuing Technologies, Wirecard Service Technologies, Wirecard Acceptance Technologies, Wirecard Sales International Holding and Wirecard Global Sales; the register shows Wirecard AG in liquidation from 4 September 2020. The Leipzig local court opened proceedings over Wirecard Communication Services on 31 August 2020, and an Irish court ordered Wirecard UK and Ireland Limited to be wound up on 28 October 2020, with liquidator's reports filed up to April 2026. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13}

analysisIn early July 2020 Wirecard filed for insolvency of six further German service subsidiaries with 1,270 employees, which the administrator wanted to continue where possible; Wirecard AG itself had 250 employees. After the proceedings opened about 730 jobs were cut, while 570 staff in Aschheim kept their jobs, 350 of them in the insolvent companies and 220 at Wirecard Bank, which remained solvent. ^{14 15}

analysisOn 5 July 2020 Wirecard Acquiring & Issuing GmbH, in agreement with Wirecard AG and the preliminary administrator, engaged Moelis & Company to sell Wirecard North America, which went to Syncapay. Wirecard announced an agreement for a PagSeguro subsidiary to acquire Wirecard Brazil, subject to Brazilian approval, and an agreement in principle for Wirecard Card Solutions to sell customer relationships and other assets to Railsbank Technology. On 28 September 2020 the administrator sold Wirecard Romania, held by Wirecard Sales International Holding, with Romcard and Supercard to the payment provider SIBS, while the Indonesian and Vietnamese companies were in advanced auctions; the Austrian Wirecard Central Eastern Europe's business went to AURIN Investment Group with effect from 30 September 2020, according to its own administrator, Dr. Ulla Reisch. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisThe sale of the core assets of Wirecard AG and Wirecard Technologies, the European technology platform, to the Santander group closed on 28 January 2021 after signing in mid-November 2020, and about 500 employees moved to Santander's Getnet platform. On 30 March 2021 the administrator announced the sale of the Turkish subsidiary to Nomu Pay, a new Irish company of the investor Finch Capital, and on 16 April 2021 the sale to Nomu Pay of the companies in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong, with assets and licences linked to the Singapore data centre, and of PT Wirecard Technologies Indonesia to an Indonesian group; Wirecard Australia A&I had already been sold. By mid-2021, according to the administrator's law firm, the core business and the valuable foreign subsidiaries had been sold for a total in the "high three-digit millions", about 2,700 jobs had been preserved, and claims for damages were being pursued in many jurisdictions. ^{4 5 6 7}

analysisAccording to the Federal Court of Justice, about 50,000 Wirecard AG shareholders filed damage claims of about EUR 8.5 billion arising from their share purchases, and claims in total amount to about EUR 15.4 billion, including EUR 500 million of bondholders' claims, against an estate of about EUR 650 million. On 13 November 2025 the court (IX ZR 127/24) ruled that shareholders of an insolvent stock corporation cannot share in the distribution of the estate as ordinary insolvency creditors with their capital-market damage claims, setting aside a Munich higher regional court judgment of September 2024 to that extent and restoring the Munich I regional court's dismissal of November 2022. ^{1 2}