ASIC Imposes Additional Licence Conditions on Macquarie Bank Citing Compliance Failures

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Wednesday imposed additional conditions on the Australian financial services licence held by Macquarie Bank, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group. ASIC stated that the conditions were imposed citing numerous serious compliance failures by the bank.

According to ASIC, the compliance shortcomings pertained to Macquarie Bank's futures dealing business and its over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trade reporting obligations. Some of these failures were reportedly unnoticed for a decade, based on ASIC's findings.

The regulator's new conditions require Macquarie Bank to prepare a remediation plan specifically designed to address these identified failures and their underlying causes. The bank is also mandated to enlist an independent expert to review the sufficiency of the remediation plan and report on their findings. Furthermore, the independent expert will be required to assess the effectiveness of Macquarie's remediation activities once implemented.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant commented on the regulatory action, stating, "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." This action follows a previous penalty imposed by ASIC's Markets Disciplinary Panel in September 2024, which fined Macquarie nearly A$5 million (equivalent to approximately $3 million USD) for failing to prevent suspicious orders from being placed on the electricity futures market.

ASIC stated that the new licence conditions were set after the regulator identified nine market conduct matters of concern involving Macquarie Bank over the last 18 months. Macquarie acknowledged the ASIC's announcement, stating that it has cooperated with the regulator and consented to the imposed licence conditions. Macquarie Bank is scheduled to report its full-year earnings results on Friday, May 9.