Australian regulator launches further crackdown on Macquarie Bank after compliance failures
The bank's compliance shortcomings, some of which remained unnoticed for a decade, pertained to its futures dealing business and its over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trade reporting, according to the ASIC.
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The regulator's new conditions require Macquarie to prepare a remediation plan to address these failures and their root causes, enlist an independent expert to review and report on the remediation plan's sufficiency, and have the independent expert assess the effectiveness of Macquarie's remediation activities.
"Our intervention underscores our concern with the recurrent nature of Macquarie's failures, which were caused by ineffective supervision and weak compliance and control management," the ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said.
This comes after ASIC's Markets Disciplinary Panel fined Macquarie in September 2024 with nearly A$5 million ($3 million) for failing to prevent suspicious orders being placed on the electricity futures market.
The new licence conditions were set after the ASIC identified nine market conduct matters of concern in the last 18 months, it said.
Macquarie acknowledged the ASIC's announcement and said it has cooperated with the regulator and consented to the licence conditions.
Macquarie is slated to report its full-year earnings results on Friday, May 9.
($1 = 1.5375 Australian dollars)
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