Macquarie responds to ASIC court action
Macquarie bank has responded to the Federal Court proceedings filed by ASIC regarding alleged failures to monitor transactions.
On Tuesday, 5 April, ASIC issued a public statement announcing that it had commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Macquarie Bank Ltd for allegedly failing to adequately monitor and control transactions by third parties, such as financial advisers, on their customers’ cash management accounts.
ASIC alleges that there was limited monitoring by Macquarie of transactions made through its bulk transaction system using a ‘fee authority’ and that these transactions did not pass through a fraud monitoring system or undergo manual checks to confirm the transactions were for fees.
It alleges that the impact on Macquarie’s customers includes $2.9 million in unauthorised withdrawals from SMSF accounts by now convicted former financial adviser, Ross Andrew Hopkins.
In a statement issued this week by the bank, Macquarie stated that it has cooperated with ASIC’s investigation into this matter.
“Macquarie notes the Federal Court proceedings filed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in relation to the Cash Management Account (CMA) third party fee authority,” it stated.
“ASIC’s court filing notes that this issue arose in relation to 13 clients of an independent financial adviser between 2016 and 2019, who has since pleaded guilty to fraud.”
Macquarie stated that following the independent adviser’s failure to compensate his clients for their losses, Macquarie fully reimbursed the 13 clients.
“Macquarie treats the security of its clients’ accounts with the utmost seriousness, and has continued to introduce new controls and processes to respond to the evolving external fraud environment,” the bank stated.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
