The UK financial watchdog has fined Macquarie Bank £13mn after one of its traders in London recorded more than 400 fictitious trades to hide his losses.
The Financial Conduct Authority said: “The fictitious trades were not detected earlier because of significant weaknesses” in Macquarie Bank’s systems and controls. It added that the bank had previously been made aware of some of the weaknesses.
Travis Klein, a trader on Macquarie’s London metals and bulks trading desk, has been banned from the financial services industry after bypassing the bank’s controls without detection for more than 20 months.
The watchdog said it would have fined Klein £72,000 “if his application for serious financial hardship had not been successful”.
Macquarie said that since the incident it had “implemented a series of improvements” to its controls.
This is a developing story
