Australia sues Macquarie Securities for alleged misreported short sales

This is the fourth regulatory action ASIC had taken against Macquarie in the past year.

Australia is suing Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited (MSAL) for allegedly misreporting millions of short sales for over 14 years.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) alleged that MSAL failed to correctly report the volume of short sales by at least 73 million, according to proceedings filed in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The period covered was between 11 December 2009 and 14 February 2024.

This is the fourth regulatory action ASIC has taken against Macquarie Group over the past 12 months.

ASIC says that the misleading conduct was due to multiple systems-related issues, many of which remained undetected for over a decade.

“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 in May 2025, ASIC had sought an independent review of MSAL’s regulatory reporting systems, controls, and supervisory procedures.