Macquarie wriggles out of client money strife
ASIC has revoked conditions imposed on the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Macquarie Bank following the "conclusion of works" undertaken by KPMG as external expert.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission imposed the conditions in March 2016 following "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 conditions required Macquarie to engage an expert to review, assess and report on the adequacy of Macquarie's procedures for ensuring compliance.A short "summary report" from KPMG, published by ASIC, concluded that Macquarie was "applying its framework in the manner contemplated during its design and implementation," endorsing the "embedded business as usual processes", and had a "strong appetite to be compliant" and a "strong 'tone from the top'."Finally, KPMG said it "did not identify any breaches … which had not already been identified and assessed."