Wirecard is set to miss the very first payment on $561 million worth of debt and join the notorious 'no coupon' club

• German fintech Wirecard is set to miss the first payment on $561 million worth of bonds issued last year, the Financial Times reported.
• The FT said Wirecard risks entering the infamous unofficial "no coupon at all club."
• Wirecard is due to make an interest payment of 0.5% on the bond in September.
• Wirecard filed for insolvency last week, and saw its former chief executive Markus Braun resign and be arrested on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practises.
• Moody's gave Wirecard's bonds a rating of Baa3, the lowest rung of investment-grade.

Wirecard bonds are slated to join a deadly 'no coupon club' and miss it's very first payment on bonds worth 500 million euros ($561 million).

The Financial Times reported Wednesday, that an interest payment of 0.5% is due in September, and the scandal ridden firm is almost certainly due to miss this payment following the insolvency filing of the German fintech last week.

Last year Deutsche Bank and Crédit Agricole acted on Wirecard's behalf to sell the bond to investors.

Wirecard is expected to join the unofficial "NCAA" club, dubbed by traders as "no coupon at all."

Bonds worth $900 million Hertz, the car rental company that declared bankruptcy last month.

Madeleine King, co-head of investment grade research at Legal & General Investment Management told the FT, that if Wirecard joins the NCAA, it would represent the first bond denominated in euros to earn the inauspicious tag since the financial crisis and collapse of Lehman Brothers.

But King downplayed the spectre of many such bonds earning NCAA accreditation adding that such a scenario will "remain a rare phenomenon."

Wirecard was able to get the backing of bond investors thanks to an investment-grade rating from Moody's.

Moody's gave Wirecard's bonds a rating of Baa3, the lowest rung of investment-grade.

While the 500 million euro bond is set to join the NCAA club, some of Wirecard's bonds will escape that fate.

Last year Japanese tech giant SoftBank invested 900 million euros ($1 billion) in Wirecard convertible bonds — a type of bond that can be turned into equity.

According to deal documents seen by the FT, the convertible note paid an interest of 1.9% and was split across two semi-annual installments.

The first of such coupons was paid in February 2020.

Wirecard filed for insolvency last Thursday following a dramatic week which saw the resignation and arrest of its former CEO Markus Braun on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practises.

He resigned after more than $2 billion of cash went missing from the company's balance sheet. The company said last week 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.

Wirecard is still continuing its business activities despite filing for insolvency.

Wirecard said the decision of whether to open insolvency proceedings is currently being reviewed and a provisional insolvency administrator is expected to be appointed soon