Macquarie’s compliance bill reaches $413m



The regulatory bill being carried by Macquarie Group has quadrupled over the past four years to around $413 million and the company expect this trend to continue, according to Macquarie Group chairman, Kevin McCann.
Addressing the company's annual general meeting, McCann pointed out that the business was regulated by around 190 authorities in 28 jurisdictions and also made reference to the fact that the enforceable undertaking imposed on Macquarie Equities Limited by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had concluded.
He said that as part of the client remediation process Macquarie Private Wealth had written to approximately 190,000 current and former clients inviting them to seek a file review and that, to date, Macquarie had paid approximately $11 million in compensation to clients.
The board has paid close attention to the implementation of the Enforceable Undertaking and the remediation of clients," McCann said. "We sought and received frequent updates on the progress of the implementation plan and the appropriate rescourcing of Macquarie Private Wealth to deliver it.
"We are satisfied that the Macquarie Private Wealth business has been transformed in terms of its compliance practices and processes. In addition, the comprehensiveness of our client remediation process has received favourable comment in public forums by a number of parties, including ASIC.
Recommended for you
ASIC believes advice licensees are the “first line of defence” when it comes to future product failures and is urging them to monitor their approved product lists.
Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino, is keen to progress the second tranche of DBFO reforms, acknowledging it is hard for advisers to get the full picture of the legislation without both parts.
A professional year supervisor has been banned for five years after advice provided by his provisional relevant provider was deemed to be inappropriate, the first time this is believed to have occurred.
Pinnacle Investment Management has made a strategic investment in private capital investment firm FinCap to support a new managed accounts platform.