Overview
- The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has filed a lawsuit in the New South Wales Supreme Court against Macquarie Securities, alleging the misreporting of at least 73 million short sales between 2009 and 2024.
- ASIC claims the misreporting, which could represent up to 1.5 billion short sales, stemmed from persistent system failures that went undetected for over a decade.
- This marks ASIC’s fourth enforcement action against Macquarie Group in just over a year, reflecting heightened regulatory scrutiny of the financial institution's compliance practices.
- The regulator is seeking penalties of up to A$783 million and an independent review of Macquarie Securities' regulatory reporting systems to ensure future compliance.
- Macquarie has stated it self-reported the issue to ASIC in late 2022, has since addressed the deficiencies, and is now reviewing the regulator’s claims.