The Australian Securities and Investments Commission reported that the New South Wales Supreme Court ordered Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited to pay an AUD 35 million pecuniary penalty after multiple systems-related failures caused the misreporting of short sales over several years, and the Court found the firm engaged in misleading conduct. Macquarie failed to correctly report at least 73 million short sales between 11 December 2009 and 14 February 2024, with ASIC estimating that 298 million to 1.5 billion short sales were misreported over the period. The Court declared that the firm lacked adequate risk management systems, supervisory policies and procedures, and necessary organisational and technical resources, and failed to provide accurate regulatory data to the market operator, citing the potential for inaccurate short sale reports to mislead market users and affect market operators and ASIC’s market surveillance. In addition to the penalty, the Court ordered Macquarie to engage an independent expert to assess its short sale and regulatory reporting systems and processes, and to pay ASIC’s costs. ASIC said the matter was its first short-sale reporting case, commenced on 14 May 2025.
Australian Securities & Investments Commission 2026-03-16
Australian Securities and Investments Commission secures AUD 35 million New South Wales Supreme Court penalty against Macquarie Securities for short sale misreporting
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced that the New South Wales Supreme Court ordered Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited to pay an AUD 35 million penalty for misreporting short sales due to systems failures. The Court found Macquarie lacked adequate risk management and supervisory systems, leading to misleading conduct. Macquarie must engage an independent expert to review its reporting systems and pay ASIC's costs.