Finances

The US company Apple is the most valuable brand in the world with a valuation of $263,375 billion, according to the Brand Finance Global 500 2021 ranking. Amazon and Google, which are also based in the USA, follow in the second and third place.

On Saturday, the price of the oldest and best-known cryptocurrency rose above the round mark of 25,000 US dollars (20,503.57 euros) for the first time. On the Bitstamp trading platform, a high of 25,022 dollars was reached. This is a record high. On other trading platforms, of which there are many, the record highs may differ, as there is no central Bitcoin trading.

Bitcoin has surpassed the $20,000 mark on Wednesday and continued to surge late into the evening, reaching $22,192 on 2 am EST. Bitcoin’s market cap has reached $384 billion.

With the largest international tax reform in decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) wants to regulate how global corporations are taxed. Now the 137 countries involved have come close enough to a consensus that a breakthrough is imminent.

The German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has stated that "we have taken a huge step forward with the unanimous agreement on the blueprints for reforming global corporate taxation" and added that in his opinion the OECD "will be able to reach final agreement on this major reform project by summer next year. After all, the project still needs political approval, and so far the green light from the United States in particular has been lacking".

KfW, Germany’s state development bank, could lose €100 million euros after Wirecard filed for insolvency last Thursday.

Ipex Bank, a KfW subsidiary, granted Wirecard the sum over a credit line two years ago and the funds were fully drawn down but were not hedged by Ipex.

The German shareholders’ association SdK announced Friday that it had filed a criminal complaint against accounting firm at EY over its role in the Wirecard scandal.

According to news magazine Der Spiegel, SoftBank is also planning to sue EY after investing 900 million euros in Wirecard last year.

EY, told CNBC late Thursday that "even the most robust and extended audit procedures" couldn’t uncover what it called a “collusive fraud.”

The payment provider Wirecard has declared bankruptcy at the district court in Munich. The company announced that "The Management Board of Wirecard AG has decided to file an application for the opening of insolvency proceedings on behalf of Wirecard AG at the competent Munich Local Court due to the threat of insolvency and over-indebtedness". Previously irregularities in the balance sheet of the company had come to attention and the company now assumes that €1,9 billion at two Filipino banks do not exist.