Response to the Sydney Morning Herald article on 13 September 2014

The Sydney Morning Herald published an article on 13 September which raised a range of issues regarding an Enforceable Undertaking (EU) agreed with ASIC in January 2013 by Macquarie Equities Limited trading as Macquarie Private Wealth.

The majority of issues raised by The Herald cover the scope and implementation of the EU. Macquarie notes that on 15 August 2014, ASIC Commissioner, Peter Kell, told a press conference that: "the undertaking is a very comprehensive undertaking in this case covering all aspects of MEL's operations, compliance framework, training, the remediation program itself, so there is a very considerable amount of work to be done. We are satisfied with the progress of the work..."

As previously disclosed at Macquarie's AGM on 24 July 2014, together with the implementation of FoFA regulatory changes, significant investment of approximately $49 million is being made in new processes, practices and systems over two years. This includes new and enhanced technology to support the supervision and training of advisers. There have been significant changes across the MPW business from senior management through to advisers.

The client remediation process also announced at the AGM included the Group taking the initiative to write to more than 160,000 clients, and is subject to oversight by Deloitte and ASIC. The mail out of those letters is staggered and largely complete. A final small number is in the process of being sent. Given the breadth of this communication and that it involves past clients from up to 10 years ago, there may unfortunately be isolated instances where some letters have been misaddressed. Clients can contact MPW at any time to raise concerns about receipt of letters.

Macquarie is processing all complaints as expeditiously as possible and totally rejects any suggestion of intentionally delaying the resolution of any matters.

Macquarie has recently lodged a complaint with the Press Council regarding previous reporting on Macquarie Private Wealth by The Herald.