Macquarie remains well capitalized despite compliance breaches

The Australian bank recently reported monitoring failures and short-selling misreporting.

Macquarie Group is expected to maintain its strong capital, and is judged to have a strong corporate governance despite recent compliance breaches, says S&P Global Ratings.

The Australian bank touts a diversification across business lines that “remains a key factor supporting the financial services group's credit strength,” the ratings agency said in a bulletin published on 7 November 2025.

Its half-year net profit for the period that ended in September 2025 rose 3%. Performance in the retail banking, asset management, and investment banking divisions supported the result.

Macquarie’s global footprint and diverse businesses mean that a drop in earnings from some businesses or geographies is typically offset by growth in others, S&P noted.

S&P also said that Macquarie’s corporate governance is supported by a well-established framework and board oversight. However, it did note recent compliance breaches, including failures in monitoring and short-selling misreporting.

“We note that [Macquarie] continues to work with regulators, and various remediation efforts are underway,” the ratings agency said.

Overall, S&P forecasts that Macquarie Bank will remain strongly capitalized and will maintain its risk-adjusted capital ratio soundly above 10%.

“We believe the bank will easily meet the upcoming 25 basis point increase in its minimum CET1 ratio requirement to 10.5% from 1 January 2027, when the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority removes additional Tier 1 capital from its prudential framework for banks,” S&P said.