Latest Payments News: Three Wirecard Execs Ordered To Pay €140m In Damages By Munich Court, and more

Catch up on six of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Three Wirecard Execs Ordered To Pay €140m In Damages By Munich Court

Ex-Wirecard CEO Markus Braun and two other former executives have been ordered to pay €140m in damages plus interest for loans granted to Asian business partners that were never repaid.

As reported by Germany’s Zeit Online, a Munich bankruptcy court upheld claims that the three executives should be held personally liable for the damages, which will be paid to Wirecard’s insolvency administrators.

Judge Helmut Krenek ruled that Braun, Wirecard’s former chief financial officer and a former product director had acted at “at least negligently” in issuing the loans through a subsidiary to a business in Asia.

The verdict is not yet final and an appeal is expected to follow. If successful, insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé wants to use the damages to repay creditors.

Braun has been remanded in a Munich prison since July 2020, and is currently facing criminal charges of commercial fraud, organised fraud and breach of trust.

The former CEO and his accomplices are said to have falsified balance sheets and caused lending banks €3.1bn in damages.

Qatar's First Digital Asset Regulation Goes Live

Financial regulators in Qatar have announced the launch of the QFC Digital Assets Framework 2024, a comprehensive regime for the creation and regulation of digital assets.

The framework establishes a legal and regulatory foundation for digital assets, including tokenisation processes, legal recognition of property rights in tokens, custody arrangements, transfer and exchange. It also provides for the legal recognition of smart contracts.

H.E. Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), said the framework will support Qatar’s digital transformation goals, in line with the Third National Development Strategy.

This is the final phase of the Qatar National Vision 2030. Among its goals are the delivery of “open and flexible economic structures capable of competing in a changing world”, and a “stimulating business climate capable of attracting foreign funds and technologies”.

Poland’s BLIK Mobile Payments Platform Continues Slovakia Expansion

Mobile payments platform BLIK has announced that it can now be used by customers of Tatra Banka, one of the largest banks in Slovakia, to make e-commerce payments.

Slovak users of the Tatra Banka VIAMO mobile application can now make mobile payments when shopping online using a six-digit code.

In partnership with PayU, a provider of online payment services in Central and Eastern Europe, the first online stores in Slovakia have already implemented the BLIK payment method.

BLIK was introduced to the Slovak market in 2023 after merging with VIAMO. Tatra Banka was the first Slovak bank to enable BLIK mobile payments at point of sale (POS), and is now the first to implement BLIK’s e-commerce solution.

South Korea, Indonesia Local Currency Agreement Goes Live

The central banks of South Korea and Indonesia have agreed to launch a bilateral local currency agreement for cross-border payments this month.

The initiative follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in May 2023 and an agreement on the operational guidelines for the local currency framework in June 2024.

The framework enables the Appointed Cross Currency Dealer (ACCD) banks to facilitate current account transactions between Indonesia and South Korea in their local currencies, and to reduce costs for businesses and other users.

This includes, among others, promotion of the direct quotation between the Indonesian rupiah and the Korean won, as well as the relaxation of relevant rules and regulations to enhance the usage of local currencies.

“This initiative will ultimately contribute to promoting trade between Indonesia and Korea, reducing exposure to exchange rate risks, and promoting transaction efficiency in both countries,” said the Bank of Korea.

Stricter Regulations Needed For Cash Services, Says Sweden's Riksbank

The Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, has called for tighter regulations to ensure that businesses required to accept cash payments can access adequate services for daily transactions and petty cash.

This recommendation was made in a written communication to the Ministry of Finance's ongoing inquiry into cash usage, led by MP Dennis Dioukarev.

The Riksbank expressed concerns that banks have largely stopped providing essential cash services to businesses, leaving companies reliant on Loomis, a cash-in-transit firm.

The central bank argued that existing legal requirements for banks to offer deposit services are insufficient, with many banks providing deposit machines that have limits too low for business needs.

"Many businesses continue to accept cash, but without these services they would not be able to do so in practice," said Christina Wejshammar, head of the payments department at the Riksbank.

Cross-Border Payments Linkage Between Cambodia, South Korea Goes Live

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced that the first phase of its cross-border payments linkage with South Korea is now live.

On the Cambodia side, the project is a partnership between the central bank, Jeonbuk Bank and Phnom Penh Commercial Bank (PPCB).

In phase 1, South Korean visitors to Cambodia will be able to use Jeonbuk Bank's mobile app to make payments via the country’s national QR code standard, KHQR.

Launched in 2022, KHQR now has more than 3.3m connected merchants, and is the only QR code standard available in Cambodia.

It can switch payments using Bakong, the peer-to-peer (P2P) payments network operated by the central bank.

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