Macquarie faces fine from ASIC for non-compliance of deposit guidelines.

Macquarie Bank, the Australian bank, has been fined A$175,000 ($156,000) by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for failing to comply with deposit regulations in 2012. 

The ASIC's Markets Disciplinary Panel has issued an infringement notice to Macquarie for failing on two occasions to deposit as total of A$23 million (or A$14 million and A$9 million respectively) received from a client into client accounts maintained by the bank and designated as clients' segregated accounts. The deposits went into a non-segregated house account on 10 and 11 October 2011, but were not transferred to the correct accounts until 25 October 2012. The MDP said the transfer to the correct accounts occured after a Macquarie delegate noted the discrepancy and escalated it to senior management. 

"The misconduct transpired over an unacceptable length of time... the potential loss to the Macquarie client, in the event of insolvency, was real and significant for a period of around 10 business days," said MDP.

The MDP is a peer review body that exercises ASIC's power to issue infringement notices and accept enforceable undertakings in relation to alleged breaches of the market integrity rules. The rules are made by ASIC and apply to market operators.