20 August: The New York Financial Writers’ Association has named FT’s Dan McCrum, Stefania Palma, Olaf Storbeck and John Reed as winners of the 2020 Impact Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism for their in-depth and persistent reporting on German payments company Wirecard. 

Beginning in 2015, the multi-year investigation into the technology company exposed one of Europe’s largest corporate frauds, sent ripples through the German financial regulatory system, and unearthed many other major implications. 

Judges honoured McCrum and team for having “persevered in the face of fierce opposition from Wirecard executives and disregard by auditors, financial regulators and investors that finally ended as Wirecard collapsed into insolvency.”

Paul Murphy, FT’s investigations editor, remarked, “Unravelling the massive Wirecard fraud required complex, expert journalism applied over several years. It also needed nerves of steel, given the aggressive pushback by the company and its associates, which sought to portray FT journalists as criminals.”

“So it's terrific that Dan and the rest of the Wirecard reporting team have been honoured in this way by the New York Financial Writers' Association, an award all the more valuable coming from such an illustrious group of professional peers.”

The Impact Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism seeks to honour prescient and persistent reporting that reveals important truths and spurs impact, irrespective of when the story or stories were published.

Read more on the New York Financial Writers’ Association and the Impact Award here. 

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