Macquarie statement on resolution of ASIC civil proceedings

Macquarie notes today’s announcement by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) regarding an agreement reached with Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited (MSAL) to resolve the civil proceedings commenced in May this year primarily relating to short sale transaction reporting. The parties have agreed to submit to the Court that $A35m is an appropriate civil penalty.

The proceedings involved transaction reporting deficiencies which MSAL remediated with additional controls.

As part of the resolution of this matter, which is subject to court approval, MSAL will admit to Corporations Act contraventions. ASIC has acknowledged MSAL’s full co-operation in relation to the investigation and the resolution of the proceedings.

The contraventions relate to risk management systems, supervision, resourcing and regulatory data, and one count of unintentional misleading conduct due to inaccurate reporting.

Macquarie seeks to uphold the highest standards in meeting the expectations of markets and regulators and recognises the role of transaction reporting in market confidence. If something goes wrong, Macquarie’s approach is to report the issue, engage constructively with regulators, fix the problem and apply learnings from any mistakes across the Group. Macquarie continues to invest in a broad range of programs to further improve systems and controls.