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Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

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Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#71
post #34

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Worked for a fintech company a few years back that used Wirecard as the processor for one of their products. Somehow they managed to lose the PK/FK relationship between accounts and transactions (or something like that). A whole lot of our customers suddenly started getting other people's transactions on their accounts. It was the final straw that shutdown the entire product line…

So basically the cardinal sin of payment processing then? Not that I'm surprised.

I say cardinal sin would have been not storing amounts as integer.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#72
post #48
post #43

Invisibilia just released a great podcast about trust, based on the experience of a trader who was harassed by Wirecard. The trader, who was shorting Wirecard, was subject to surveillance, and a constant stream of phishing attacks. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/868001948/trust-fall

Well, the first half of it was a podcast about that trader. Then it abruptly shifts into ... I don't know what. A general talk about trust or something. It left me confused and unsatisfied.

Invisibilia is a podcast about emotions. The second half is fairly typical episode.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#73
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he confused the us billion (10⁹) with the german billion (10¹²) ;)

What? So what do German use for 10^9, Milliarden? In French we use Milliard for billion and Trilliard for Trillions (and millions for millions).

Wow, French living in Germany for over 10 years, never realized that Billion meant something else here.

I guess I'm not rich enough, ahah.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically the cardinal sin of payment processing then? Not that I'm surprised.

I say cardinal sin would have been not storing amounts as integer.

There's a cardinal pun somewhere in there but I can't think of it.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#75
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he confused the us billion (10⁹) with the german billion (10¹²) ;)

What? So what do German use for 10^9, Milliarden? In French we use Milliard for billion and Trilliard for Trillions (and millions for millions).

[deleted]

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#76
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common mistake if you come from a language using the long scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

I guess instead of saying "a billion dollars" we should say "1 Gigadollar"

Mmm, I'd like to spend no more than half a kilorupeee on dinner.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparatively, that's unlikely to be true. €1.9bn is pocket money compared to Wall St's and the City's more creative frauds. The UK is currently dealing with a government minister who was involved in questionable planning oversight for a single development scheme worth £1bn - and that's barely even a footnote in the news here.

By 'barely even a footnote', you must mean front page news on most newspapers today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-53173316

In a historical context, that's still a footnote.

Especially compared to - say - the suppressed Russia report, or the non-existent disclosure about the true sources of funding for Brexit, or the fact that the government wasted £12m on an app that does nothing, or the sum total of various other Brexit- and Covid-related contracts to various government cronies, donors, and associates, and which appear to have supplied nothing of value to taxpayers.

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#78

The entire story is shameful. I can just hope the Germans learn lessons from this.

Any lessons learned from Dieselgate? Or from Danske Bank laundering 236 bilions Russian money?

C'mon this is Europe... We are forgetting quickly here..

Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare

#79
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanos, the famous Elizabeth Holmes' company that tried to kill the Avengers

Theranos. Certainly a hell of a typo.

With one snap of one's fingers, half the company's 'value' dies in an instant.
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