London | The warp-speed unravelling of Australian billionaire Lex Greensill’s supply-chain finance empire went into overdrive on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), as the German regulator BaFin temporarily shuttered his Bremen-based bank.

In a statement, BaFin said it would put a “moratorium” on Greensill Bank, which had €4.5 billion ($7 billion) of assets at the end of 2020, and ban it from accepting payments or making sales. Mr Greensill acquired the bank in 2014 to operate his receivables-lending business.