Macquarie takes its origins from the merchant bank Hill Samuel Australia (HSA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hill Samuel & Co. Limited, London. Established in Australia in 1969, it began operations in Sydney in January 1970 with only three staff.
Macquarie takes its name from Australia's most successful governor, Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1761-1824), who was instrumental in the establishment of Australia's first bank and was also responsible for introducing Australia's first coinage, the 'Holey Dollar'.
In 1813, Governor Macquarie overcame an acute currency shortage by purchasing Spanish silver dollars, punching out the centres and creating two new coins, the 'Holey Dollar' and the 'Dump'. This doubled the number of coins in circulation, increased their combined value by 25 percent and prevented the coins from leaving the colony.
Today, Macquarie Group is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services.
- 1969
- Established as Hill Samuel Australia Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK merchant bank Hill Samuel & Co Ltd
- 1985
- Obtained an Australian banking licence as Macquarie Bank Limited
- 1988
- Acquired Chemical Australia Ltd (Australia)
- 1989
- London office opened
- 1990
- Acquired Boston Australia Ltd (Australia)
- 1992
- Acquired Security Pacific (Australia)
- 1994
- New York office opened
- 1995
- Hong Kong office opened
- 1996
- Macquarie Bank Limited publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange
- 1999
- Acquired the Australian assets of Bankers' Trust
- 2004
- Acquired Asian cash equities business of ING Group (Asia)
- 2007
- Acquired Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC (US)
- 2007
- Formally established Macquarie Group Limited as a Non-Operating Holding company
- 2008
- Established a UK bank on 4 February
Acquired Orion Financial Inc. (Canada)
Acquired CIT Systems Leasing (US) - 2009
- Acquired Constellation Energy's downstream natural gas trading operations (North America)