Amy McKeown: A unique perspective in Macquarie's BFS Treasury team

Amy McKeown, Head of Regulatory Reporting Advisory, is part of Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services (BFS) Treasury team. Amy brings a unique perspective to the business and has embraced opportunities for growth, mobility and challenge within Macquarie Group.

Embracing opportunity

Amy McKeown says that even after 14 years with Macquarie, she never imagined she would end up working in regulatory reporting for BFS Treasury.

“This opportunity allowed me to grow in ways I hadn’t anticipated, and it’s been incredibly fulfilling,” she says.

“It all comes back to feeling empowered to put up your hand and take the opportunities that are presented,” she says. “That’s a Macquarie value - it’s seen as really positive when someone wants to grow and be chalenged.”

Carving out a career 

Amy landed a graduate position at Macquarie in 2002 after completing a tech degree. She initially joined as a developer, writing code for the Macquarie Wealth trading platform, before moving into solutions architecture.

After several years building her career at Macquarie, Amy spent time raising a family and running her own IT business. When she later chose to return to corporate life in 2018, she rejoined Macquarie through the Returner Program, which supported her transition back in a new field as a Technical Business Analyst in the BFS Payments team. She went on to become a Product Director for business banking deposits, then credit cards.

“I enjoyed working in product because the end-to-end accountability was empowering and provided a fantastic opportunity to understand the full breadth of running a product within a business,” Amy says. “I like taking on new challenges, moving around and learning new things - and BFS is supportive of that.”

Embracing a new challenge

Two years ago, Amy embraced the opportunity to become the Head of Regulatory Reporting Advisory, a role she has held since. “Senior leaders encouraged me to explore the role and once I understood the impact it could have, I knew it was the right next step for me,” she says.

While there’s a strong financial aspect to the role, Amy says the fact that she doesn’t have a typical accounting background gives her a different perspective.  

“It’s very different from my previous roles and I find the work highly rewarding.”

A holistic view of the business

Embedded within BFS, the Regulatory Reporting Advisory team helps translate regulatory guidance, and applies the context of BFS products, and customers to determine how Macquarie will comply.

“Being business‑facing means we’re not siloed; we’re deeply connected with product and other teams across the BFS ecosystem,” she says. This embedded model enables the team to support strategic product decisions, bringing a detailed and current understanding of the regulatory environment into business discussions. At the same time, close collaboration with product teams builds deep product knowledge, making regulatory reporting more efficient and more accurate. “It’s our role to ensure regulatory reporting is executed correctly, whilst also steering the solution and making conscious choices around product design,” Amy says. “Whenever there’s a change, we’re involved, so it’s an integrated approach.”

This proximity to both regulation and product gives Amy a broader view of how the business operates.

“You have to understand what you’re reporting and have a holistic view of the banking industry,” she says. “No two days are ever the same. And that’s a lot of fun.”

Balancing work, life and new roles

“Having four children and working can present challenges in maintaining balance,” Amy says.

Part-time work is well supported at Macquarie, and a four-day work week helps Amy find the right equilibrium, allowing her time with her family and opportunities to grow her career.

“I’m a working mum and I’ve had a variety of opportunities to try different roles. This has given me real career diversity and plenty of challenges,” Amy says. “I’ve enjoyed different aspects of all my different teams and roles and there’s always more to learn.”

“More than anything though, my career journey with Macquarie has been fulfilling because there has always been scope to make a difference.”