Repeat offender Macquarie challenges conditions on Australian Financial Services Licence
Macquarie Bank has been ordered to commission and produce an expert's report by early April in connection with mishandling of client money.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Friday said it "imposed additional conditions on the Australian Financial Services Licence of Macquarie Bank ... 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 and 2014."In its media release, ASIC said 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."The expert must "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."Macquarie said in a statement that it "had already undertaken this in 2013 when it appointed KPMG and put in place a new industry-leading client money framework."The bank said this "new framework has resulted in improvements in client money handling controls."ASIC and Macquarie both said the bank filed an application for review of the decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and has sought a stay of the decision pending the outcome of the review.The corporate regulator last sanctioned Macquarie in a similar manner in late 2013.Macquarie Bank at the time paid a penalty of A$175,000 to comply with an infringement notice given to it by the Markets Disciplinary Panel. That penalty was imposed on Macquarie for failing, on two separate occasions in October 2012, to deposit a total of A$23 million received from a client into client accounts maintained by Macquarie and designated as clients' segregated accounts.