Macquarie Securities (Australia) Limited (MSAL) has admitted to misleading conduct linked to the misreporting of millions of short sales over an extended period, following enforcement action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The matter relates to ongoing failures in MSAL’s systems and internal processes that resulted in inaccurate regulatory disclosures across multiple years.

ASIC and MSAL have jointly asked the New South Wales Supreme Court to impose a civil penalty of $35 million, along with additional orders against the firm. The proposed penalty and related orders remain subject to review and approval by the Court. ASIC commenced civil proceedings in the case on 14 May 2025, marking the regulator’s first enforcement action focused specifically on short-sale reporting obligations.

Macquarie Securities Admits to Misreporting Millions of Short Sales

According to a statement of agreed facts filed with the Court, MSAL failed to correctly report at least 73 million short sales between 11 December 2009 and 14 February 2024. ASIC estimates that the total number of misreported short sales may range between 298 million and 1.5 billion. The reporting errors were attributed to multiple system-related failures, several of which went undetected for more than a decade.

MSAL also admitted it did not maintain appropriate supervisory policies and procedures, lacked sufficient organisational and technical resources, and did not operate adequate risk management systems. In addition, the firm failed to ensure compliance with its short-sale reporting obligations under Australian market regulations.

Separate from the short-selling issues, MSAL acknowledged incorrectly reporting regulatory data for more than 633,000 orders submitted to the market operator between 16 November 2022 and 21 March 2023. These inaccuracies further contributed to ASIC’s concerns around the firm’s governance and reporting frameworks.

ASIC stated that the action against MSAL forms part of its broader regulatory efforts to address misconduct and compliance failures among large Australian financial institutions. Short selling involves selling a financial product that the seller does not own at the time of sale, typically with the expectation of buying it back later at a lower price.

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