Regulators have ordered one of Wirecard's key businesses to stop all activities and frozen customer funds amid its $2 billion accounting scandal

• Wirecard's UK-subsidiary Wirecard Solutions Limited was ordered Friday by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to immediately halt all regulated activities.
• The firm has also been prohibited from offloading any assets or funds and customers' money has been frozen, the FCA said.
• The FCA said: "Our primary objective is to protect the interests and money of consumers who use Wirecard."
• German fintech Wirecard filed for insolvency on Thursday, the culmination of a lengthy accounting scandal which saw more than $2 billion disappear from the company's balance sheet.
• The company's ex-CEO Markus Braun was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practises.

UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority has ordered the UK subsidiary of once profitable German fintech Wirecard to cease all regulated activities following an insolvency filing by its parent company.

The Financial Conduct Authority ordered German fintech's UK-based subsidiary Wirecard Card Solutions Limited to halt all regulated activities and prohibited the firm from offloading any assets or funds, with immediate effect.

The regulator said in a statement Friday: "Our primary objective is to protect the interests and money of consumers who use Wirecard.

"Following last week's news of €1.9 billion missing from the accounts of the German company, Wirecard, we immediately placed requirements on the firm's UK business so that it should not pay out or reduce any money it holds for its customers except on their instructions," the FCA added.

All customer cash will be frozen, the FCA added.

The move comes as Wirecard filed for insolvency on Thursday following a week which saw the resignation and arrest of its former CEO Markus Braun.

Wirecard's share price has been in the red since last week when its auditor EY said it could not trace €1.9 billion (about $2 billion) on its balance sheet. It has lost around 98% of its market capitalization since the start of 2020.

The company said on Monday the money likely never existed.

The firm had said its missing cash was being held in two banks in the Philippines, but later the central bank of the Philippines denied the claim.

The FT reported Friday that Valdis Dombrovskis, EU's executive vice-president in charge of financial services policy is writing to the European Securities and Markets Authority to assess whether German markets regulator BaFin failed in its handing of the Wirecard crisis.