(19 May 2025 – Australia) Australia’s corporate regulator is taking legal action against Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited (MSAL), alleging the firm significantly misreported millions of short sale trades over a period spanning more than 14 years.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) claims MSAL failed to accurately disclose the volume of short sales by at least 73 million transactions between 11 December 2009 and 14 February 2024, according to documents filed in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
This marks the fourth enforcement move ASIC has initiated against Macquarie Group in the past year.
According to ASIC, the reporting inaccuracies stemmed from multiple system failures that went undetected for over a decade — a situation the regulator believes could have had widespread implications for market transparency and fairness.
“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,” Longo added.
Earlier this month, ASIC commissioned an independent review of MSAL’s regulatory reporting systems, internal controls, and oversight functions to assess the full extent of the lapses and guide remediation efforts.