Macquarie appeals ASIC 'client money' decision

Tim Stewart

— 1 minute read

14 March 2016

Macquarie Group has applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC's decision to apply licence conditions to the bank over its handling of client money.

The corporate regulator announced on Friday it had imposed additional conditions on Macquarie Bank after an investigation into a series of breach reports relating to client money handling.

"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 [Corporations] Act and make recommendations for improvements," said ASIC.

But Macquarie has applied to the AAT for a review of ASIC's decision to apply licence conditions.

"Macquarie has applied to the AAT on the basis that ASIC’s proposed conditions are duplicative of work that Macquarie has already done," said a statement from the bank.

"ASIC’s decision relates to client money incidents which Macquarie identified and self-reported to ASIC during 2013 and 2014. No incident resulted in a loss to any client.

"Macquarie treats client money with the utmost seriousness and in self-reporting these incidents to ASIC, took a conservative and consultative approach. The incidents reported included errors in atypical situations, and all were addressed with improvements to processes and controls.

"Macquarie has requested a stay of the ASIC decision from the AAT," Macquarie said.

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