Macquarie AFSL conditions removed
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has removed additional conditions on the Australian financial services licence (AFSL) of Macquarie Bank.
The corporate regulator had imposed the conditions on Macquarie Bank in March, after investigations into a series of breach reports lodged by Macquarie in relation to breaches of client money provisions of the Corporations Act between March 2004 and 2014.
Macquarie Bank engaged KPMG in April to test the effectiveness of the application of its client money framework in Australia over the six-month period ended 31 March, 2016 in complying with client money requirements set out in the Corporations Act.
In its report, KPMG said it had not detected any breaches of the client money requirements which had not already been identified and dealt with by Macquarie in accordance with the Act.
It also said Macquarie's framework had been entrenched into business as usual processes, controls and governance initiatives and standard business group reporting.
"For example, it is now a Macquarie policy requirement to consider client money in all new product approvals, assurance testing is being performed on critical client money controls by Macquarie's business operational risk managers, and client money bank accounts are being recorded in the bank account register," KPMG's report said.
While KPMG did not find any issues that could classify as a breach of client money requirements, it did make a few recommendations to boost framework application and strengthen its ability to comply with the client money requirements.
Following ASIC's imposition of licence conditions, Macquarie had stated it had already identified and self-reported the incidents to ASIC during 2013 and 2014, and those indicents had not resulted in loss to clients.
It was granted a stay of ASIC's licensing conditions on 15 March, pending a review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of ASIC's decision.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
Recommended for you
Unregistered managed investment scheme operator Chris Marco has been sentenced after being found guilty of 43 fraud charges, receiving the highest sentence imposed by an Australian court regarding an ASIC criminal investigation.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of Sydney-based Arrumar Private after it failed to comply with the conditions of its licence.
Two investment advisory research houses have announced a merger to form a combined entity under the name Delta Portfolios.
The top five licensees are demonstrating a “strong recovery” from losses in the first half of the year, and the gap is narrowing between their respective adviser numbers.
