Laura WilesThe FCA has fined Macquarie Bank Limited – London Branch £13m for serious control failures that allowed an employee to record over 400 fictitious trades.
From June 2020 to February 2022, Travis Klein – based on Macquarie’s Metals and Bulks Trading Desk – was able to record and take steps to conceal over 400 fictitious trades in the firm’s internal systems, in an attempt to hide his trading losses.
There were significant weaknesses in Macquarie’s systems and controls. Despite being aware of them in part, the firm had failed to remedy the weaknesses in an effective and timely manner. Mr Klein was therefore able to bypass three key internal controls unnoticed for over 20 months.
The fictitious trades cost Macquarie approximately $57.8m to resolve, but did not affect customers or the market overall.
The FCA has banned Mr Klein from the financial services industry for acting dishonestly and without integrity, and would have fined him £72,000 had his application for serious financial hardship not been successful.