(18 March 2013 – Australia) Investment bank, Macquarie Group has reached an A$82.5 million settlement with almost 1000 investors who lost their savings in the collapse of Storm Financial.Macquarie faced a class action suit over its role selling margin loans to the group of Storm investors, who reportedly lost up to A$290 million in the financial adviser’s collapse.
The commercial deal now effectively ends the financial cost of the Storm collapse for Macquarie.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is also facing legal action over its role in Storm, which collapsed in 2009, after advising many clients to borrow against their homes and invest in the sharemarket.
Last year CBA made a deal with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under which it agreed to provide A$270 million to Storm customers.
CBA said this month it would defend the class action, which it said was misconceived because the bank was not responsible for Storm’s advice to its clients.
Action against Westpac and Bank of Queensland (BoQ) over their roles lending to Storm investors is also planned.