Macquarie Bank Faces Additional Licence Conditions Over Repeated Compliance Failures
Macquarie Bank Limited has been issued additional conditions on its Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence following repeated and significant compliance failures across its futures trading and derivatives reporting operations. Several of the issues went undetected for extended periods, raising serious regulatory concerns.
Key Compliance Failures
Futures Dealing Operations: Macquarie failed to prevent 11 suspicious orders from being placed on the electricity futures market through its trading terminals. This occurred shortly after the bank had already been penalised nearly $5 million for similar gatekeeping failures.
OTC Derivatives Trade Reporting: The bank misreported over 375,000 over the counter (OTC) derivative transactions, with some errors persisting undetected for years. Such breaches compromise market transparency and hinder oversight efforts designed to monitor systemic financial risk.
Imposed Licence Conditions
To address these failures, ASIC has imposed new requirements on Macquarie, including:
- Development of a Remediation Plan
The plan must address the futures dealing and trade reporting failures and outline steps for identifying and correcting root causes. - Appointment of an Independent Expert
An external expert must review the remediation plan and report on whether Macquarie’s remedial actions are effective and sustainable. - Sustainable Compliance Improvements
The remediation must result in lasting structural and operational changes—not just temporary fixes—to ensure ongoing compliance.
Macquarie must provide an initial report on its remediation progress by 30 June 2025 and is expected to continue these efforts over a three-year period. Further regulatory actions remain possible if it fails to meet these conditions.