Macquarie to refund $5.5 million to clients

Macquarie Investment Management will refund more than $5.5 million to around 2,300 clients following an investigation prompted by ASIC.

Acting as an independent third-party consultant to Macquarie, Deloitte identified a number of system errors that occurred between 2001 and 2014 on a number of products using the Macquarie Wrap Platform, ASIC said.

The system errors included failing to apply sufficient tax credits to the GST portion of client fees, and charging administration fees that exceeded the maximum disclosed in the product offering documents.

Macquarie appointed Deloitte after “discussion with ASIC” in order to ensure that “all affected clients are identified and appropriately compensated and Macquarie’s controls and processes are adequate to prevent a similar error occurring in future”, ASIC said.

Deloitte’s review identified a third error, relating to the administration fee in an offering document, said the regulator.

“All three errors have now been rectified and Macquarie will commence compensation (including all interest due) to clients from 17 June 2015 onwards.

“Clients who exited affected products more than 12 months ago will be contacted by Macquarie to discuss refund arrangements,” ASIC said.

Commissioner Greg Tanzer said: “We welcome the reporting of large system errors to ASIC. Where errors do occur, entities must  identify and appropriately rectify them as soon as possible.”

“ASIC will work with entities who report issues to us to ensure consumers are compensated in a timely, effective way,” he added.

InvestorDaily