(1 August 2011 – Australia) Macquarie Group chief executive Nicholas Moore said the group is still expecting a better profit result for the full year, but only if market conditions don’t get any worse.Mr Moore said the US default would be a terrible outcome for the world and for the banks earnings estimates.
But the group stood by earlier guidance for full-year 2012 net profit to be an improvement on the A$956 million posted last year.
Macquarie shares have fallen 24 percent in the past 12 months.
Asked by a shareholder whether Macquarie had a contingency plan in the event the US did default, Mr Moore said: ‘We don’t have a plan B, because we don’t know what will happen.’
But he noted that the group’s risk management strategies should ensure that ‘we can afford those terrible outcomes’.
At a media conference ahead of a meeting in Sydney, Mr Moore quelled industry speculation the group was preparing to cut jobs, saying there had been no material change to staffing in the two months since the bank reported its full-year result.