The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said this week that it has launched legal action against Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited (MSAL).
Macquarie Securities Sued by ASIC for ‘Repeated and Systemic Misleading Conduct’
The regulator alleged “repeated and systemic misleading conduct” over more than 14 years relating to short sale reporting.
Filed in the New South Wales Supreme Court, the case marks ASIC’s first enforcement action involving short sale reporting.
The regulator claims MSAL misreported at least 73 million short sales between December 2009 and February 2024, potentially affecting between 298 million and 1.5 billion trades.
ASIC claims the inaccuracies stemmed from long-standing, undetected system failures.
“We allege Macquarie’s failures may have led to the financial services industry relying on misleading and false information for over 14 years,” said ASIC Chair Joe Longo.
“MSAL’s repeated systemic failure to detect and resolve these issues indicated serious neglect of its systems and disregard for operational controls and technological governance.”
The watchdog is also seeking penalties and a court-ordered independent review of MSAL’s regulatory reporting systems and procedures.
MSAL allegedly inflated or deflated published short sale volumes for at least 321 securities, with average discrepancies of 12%, reaching as high as 50% in some cases.
This is the fourth regulatory action ASIC has taken against Macquarie Group entities in just over a year, highlighting what ASIC describes as “ongoing and deep concerns” about the firm’s compliance culture and remediation efforts.
