From Regulator to Crisis Manager: A conversation with James H. Freis, Jr. - former CEO of Wirecard AG

Faced with fines and censure for financial crime failings over recent years, several major financial institutions have recruited senior figures from the regulatory world, along with their reputations for integrity, to help them tackle the problem.

For most regulators, the switch has been challenging – but undramatic. For James Freis, however, he was perhaps destined for the role, and showed how to apply experience decisively in radically different and unanticipated situations. After a distinguished public service career capped by a tenure as the Director of the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Mr Freis joined the Detusche Börse’s market infrastructures as Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer in 2014. But matters took an unexpected turn in June 2020 when he moved to a global FinTech.

Joining the Germany-based payments services provider Wirecard as member of the management board, he was promoted to CEO within a day, after having quickly determined that behind irregularities at the company were a massive internal fraud. In this session, we will talk to Mr Freis about his remarkable experience at Wirecard, and consider what cultural lessons the industry needs to learn about incentivising and protecting legitimate whistle-blowers. We will also take the opportunity to ask – in light of his own experience – the most pressing current question for the industry: why do financial institutions still seem to be failing on financial crime and what structural and institutional efforts could change this for the better?