Merkel Government to Blame for Wirecard Botch, Lawmaker Says (2)

The main responsibility for the failure to pursue alleged irregularities at Wirecard AG lies with the German finance ministry and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office was also at fault, according to an opposition lawmaker.

Members of the Bundestag’s finance committee continued grilling government and supervisory officials this week over Wirecard, including a top Merkel adviser and the head of financial market regulator BaFin. They want to know why authorities did not take a harder look at the payments company before it collapsed in June in the country’s biggest accounting scandal in modern history.

After a hearing Tuesday in Berlin, ...