The Philippine financial system has never seen any of Wirecard AG's missing $2.1 billion funds, the country's central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said, after two major Philippine banks denied it held money for the German credit card issuer.
BDO Unibank Inc., the Philippines largest lender, and Bank of the Philippine Islands disclosed Friday that they did not have any ties with Wirecard and that rogue staff forged documents that showed the presence of some cash.
Diokno said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is conducting its own probe to identify the perpetrators behind the missing funds. Both BPI and BDO informed Ernst & Young, Wirecard's external auditor, that audit papers certifying the presence of the supposed money were bogus.
In a statement, the Philippine central bank official stated that BDO Unibank and BPI did not incur any losses as a result of the fraud, despite having been mentioned in connection with the spurious transaction.
In response to the scandal, executives of the BSP want BPI and BDO Unibank to carry out legal action against the local parties involved, in addition to the termination of employment of bank officials who had a hand in the missing money.
The missing cash, which accounts for about 25 percent of Wirecard technology's balance sheet, has prompted the group's chief executive officer Markus Braun to resign from his position as Wirecard's stocks plunged.
Based on projections by Morgan Stanley analysts, the German payments giant has available cash of about 220 million euros ($246 million) if it cannot track down where the $2.1 billion went.
Diokno said that the international financial scandal "used the names of two of the Philippines' biggest banks... in an attempt to cover the perpetrators' tracks," Enrico Dela Cruz of Reuters, reported.
On Saturday, BPI told Reuters that after an initial investigation, the bank had placed on suspension an assistant manager whose signature appeared on one of the spurious documents.
BDO, for its part, said termination proceedings have been readied against the marketing officer who allegedly forged a bank certificate.
Meanwhile, Wirecard announced late Friday that the company had hired the services of US investment bank Houlihan Lokey to craft a new financing plan as Moody's cut the firm's rating to "Junk" status following the disappearance of the $2.1 billion.
The scandal-hit group is now desperately working to reassure its investors after its search for the missing money hit a blank wall in the Philippines.
