Police raided the premises of Wirecard yesterday following allegations of fraud at the local office of the global payments processing group.

The Straits Times understands that around 10 Commercial Affairs Department officers visited the company at about 10.30am.

In an e-mail to ST, a police spokesman said: "Police confirm that we have raided the premises of the Wirecard entities in Singapore."

A police vehicle was in the driveway when The Straits Times visited the office in Pasir Panjang yesterday afternoon.

Wirecard said it met law enforcement officers and provided them with "material in regards to their enquiry", adding that it is "working closely with the Singapore police to clear all allegations".

A spokesman added: "The accusations against employees of Wirecard are unfounded and no criminal actions were conducted.

"Wirecard's internal compliance completed a review of this matter and found the allegations unfounded."

An employee said the raid took place at the Wirecard's accountancy and compliance departments at its office on the 14th floor of Mapletree Business City.

The firm has another office at Asia Square Tower 1 in the Marina Bay district, he added.

The employee, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times that the mood was sombre, although business at the sprawling office was proceeding as usual.

The Germany-based firm provides cashless payment services to several high-profile clients here.

It supports the payment of Electronic Road Pricing tolls via credit card and top-up services for ez-link cards using a smartphone app.

Wirecard also helped Singtel in its mobile wallet Dash and worked with ComfortDelGro to replace its in-house payment services with a new system.

Its other international clients include Samsung, Google and Apple.

The company said its operations and business partners have not been impacted by the allegations, which were made in a series of articles in Britain's Financial Times (FT) newspaper.

A report on Thursday claimed that senior executives at Wirecard HQ knew of a so-called "round-tripping" scheme orchestrated in the group's Singapore office. Cash was moved around between Asian subsidiaries to artificially pad the books, the report alleged.

The FT named Mr Edo Kurniawan, a Singapore permanent resident and one of the directors of Wirecard Asia, as a key executive who allegedly devised the scheme to "cook the books".

It also cited a whistle-blower from the firm who told the FT that two senior finance executives, Mr James Wardhana and Ms Irene Chai, were Mr Kurniawan's accomplices.

When The Straits Times visited Mr Kurniawan's West Coast home twice yesterday, a female occupant said he was on a business trip. She declined to say if he was still in Singapore, and said she has been told not to speak to the media.

Wirecard also declined to identify the individuals and the whistle-blower involved, stating that "we want to protect the company and in particular our employees and their personal rights".

The firm has called in law firm Rajah & Tann to conduct an independent investigation, which will be completed soon, said the spokesman. Wirecard has pledged to make the results public.

The spokesman rejected the FT reports of a 30-page document by Rajah & Tann detailing allegations of "forgery and/or falsification of accounts" and suspected "cheating, criminal breach of trust, corruption and/or money laundering" in multiple jurisdictions.

Wirecard also said it would sue FT over the reports, according to news agency Reuters.

In a transcript of a Feb 4 conference call with investors seen by The Straits Times, Wirecard chief executive Markus Braun said he believes the Rajah & Tann document was a summary of allegations by the whistle-blower put together by the law firm before it was called in to conduct the investigation.

"Already today, we consider the whole issue as resolved, so we do not expect any material findings here," Mr Braun said in the conference call.

About 300 of the firm's 5,000 employees are based in Singapore. Wirecard also has a global compliance team of around 150 with some based in Asia.