Bafin admonishes Trade Republic

In the meantime, the online broker had suspended trading in some volatile stocks. The financial regulator does not like that at all.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) is investigating complaints from customers of online broker Trade Republic. "We have received a large number of complaints from private investors about technical malfunctions at Trade Republic in recent days. We are already investigating these," a spokeswoman said. She said the company had also been "strongly" advised to comply with regulatory requirements and to provide all services to customers "in accordance with regulatory law and free of disruption".

The Berlin-based start-up had reached its capacity limits due to the hype surrounding Gamestop stock and had temporarily suspended trading on Thursday. Previously, the stock had risen sharply, which cost some hedge funds a lot of money. Also affected were shares of AMC Entertainment, Black Berry, Nokia and Bed Bath & Beyond. Officially, the startup initially said it wanted to protect investors. However, the first investors already threatened to sue and reported the disruptions to Bafin.