The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has imposed additional conditions on Macquarie Bank Limited’s Australian financial services licence after identifying multiple and significant compliance failures in its futures dealing business and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trade reporting, including issues that went undetected for many years and one for a decade. The additional licence conditions require Macquarie to prepare a remediation plan addressing the failures and their root causes, appoint an independent expert to review and report on the adequacy of that plan, and have the independent expert assess the operational effectiveness of remediation activities designed to prevent, detect and respond to similar issues recurring in its futures dealing and OTC derivatives businesses. ASIC linked the failures to ineffective supervision and weak compliance and control management, citing poor change management, unclear roles and responsibilities, and an incomplete understanding of processes and controls, including around data governance. ASIC’s action follows nine market conduct matters identified or reported in the last 18 months, including seven matters involving misreporting of more than 375,000 OTC derivative transactions and two futures dealing matters relating to controls over suspicious trading activity and the withholding of orders on the ASX24 market. ASIC also highlighted 11 suspicious orders placed on the electricity futures market via Macquarie terminals shortly after the Markets Disciplinary Panel fined Macquarie AUD 4.995 million in September 2024 for similar failings; Macquarie cooperated with ASIC and consented to the additional licence conditions.
Australian Securities & Investments Commission 2025-05-07
Australian Securities & Investments Commission imposes additional licence conditions on Macquarie Bank over repeated futures and OTC derivatives compliance failures
ASIC has imposed additional conditions on Macquarie Bank's financial services licence due to compliance failures in futures dealing and OTC derivatives reporting, some undetected for up to a decade. Macquarie must create a remediation plan, appoint an independent expert, and assess remediation effectiveness. This follows nine market conduct issues, including misreporting over 375,000 OTC transactions. Macquarie has cooperated and agreed to the conditions.