Wirecard Australia’s voluntary administrators have begun to cull the local workforce of the embattled German-owned payments technology business.
Nine staff employed at Wirecard’s Melbourne head office were made redundant last week as administrators Andrew Fielding and Nicholas Martin scrambled to pinpoint the revenue streams of the local operation.
A Wirecard Australia employee told Banking Day that the administrators notified staff of the redundancies last Thursday because “they don’t have sufficient cashflow to pay all staff salaries”.
Wirecard Australia’s main business focuses on the provision of card management platform known as Cadencie and anti-money laundering software tools that are marketed under the Finsim moniker.
The company’s chief clients in Australia are Bendigo Bank, ME Bank and at least three customer-owned banks that use Cuscal as a service provider.
“Some of the staff made redundant were on the Cadencie and Finsim teams,” the Wirecard employee told Banking Day.
“All future development of both the Cadencie and Finsim platforms has ceased.”
According to the Wirecard employee, the administrators are also trying to slash other overheads in the business, which include monthly rental payments for leasing what the employee described as “lavish corporate space” at 360 Collins St in the Melbourne CBD.
Wirecard Australia is a subsidiary of Wirecard NZ Limited, which also entered voluntary administration on 13 July.
A spokesperson for Wirecard NZ said no Kiwi staff had been made redundant.
According to the 2018 financial accounts lodged with NZ regulators, Wirecard’s Australian and NZ businesses only continued to operate throughout 2019 after its German parent pumped cash into the operation.
At the end of December 2018, Wirecard NZ Limited was balance sheet insolvent, with a net asset deficiency of $NZ 3.5 million.
Apart from servicing financial institutions in the Australian market, Wirecard NZ Limited also licenses the Cadencie platform to banks in The Philippines, China and North America.