Macquarie Bank is a most interesting
institution, not least because of the mixed messages it sends from time to time
about ethics and acceptable behaviour.

The latest example from the Millionaire
Factory concerns a phantom futures transaction and submitting information to
the Sydney Futures Exchange “which it knew or ought reasonably to have known to
be false or misleading.” It other words,
MacBank lied to the Exchange. Not nice.

Details of the SFE’s Business Conduct
Committee finding are here, but it’s Lisa Murray’s Smage report which is most interesting on what happened to the MacBanker who apparently did
the dirty deeds.

The SFE allowed MacBank some grace for
this being its first such offence, but still fined the institution $20,000 and
publicly shamed it with the announcement.

A spokesman for Macquarie said the bank believed the SFE’s disciplinary action was “fair”.

“We take any regulatory action seriously,” he
said.

The representative involved had been reprimanded but not
sacked.

“The trader was not aware of the specific
requirements. The fact that they weren’t sacked indicates how we see
this.”

Yes, I suppose it does. I wonder how that
compares with the MacBank executive who “departed” after foolishly admitting
to a journalist that Macquarie could charge whatever tolls it liked for a British motorway it had
purchased.

He seemed to lose his job after telling the
truth, while this other fella kept his after not doing so. It seems that wasn’t
a specific requirement.