The Australian regulator ASIC has imposed additional conditions on the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Macquarie Bank Limited (Macquarie).
The additional conditions were imposed on Macquarie following an investigation by ASIC into a series of breach reports lodged by Macquarie relating to breaches of the client money provisions of the Corporations Act, between March 2004 to 2014.
The additional conditions require Macquarie to engage an expert, approved by ASIC, to review, assess and report on the adequacy of Macquarie’s procedures for ensuring compliance with the client money requirements of the Act and make recommendations for improvements.
ASIC Commissioner John Price said, ‘ASIC expects licensees to maintain strict controls and follow proper procedures in their handling of client funds. Where that does not occur, ASIC will take action to ensure a licensee’s ability to continue operating is contingent on its compliance with these requirements’.
The breaches reported by Macquarie raised issues including:
- failing to deposit monies into a designated client trust account; and
- making withdrawals that were not permitted from such an account.
Macquarie has filed an application for review of the decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and has also sought a stay of the decision pending the outcome of the review.
The ASIC statement and related information can be found here.