Macquarie Bank Fined £13M for Trader's Fake Trades and Oversight Failures

The FCA penalized Macquarie for allowing a junior trader to hide $57.8M in losses through over 400 fictitious trades over 20 months.

Travis Klein, a junior trader at Macquarie's London branch, recorded 426 fake trades between June 2020 and February 2022 to conceal significant trading losses.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Macquarie £13 million, citing serious weaknesses in the bank's systems and controls that enabled the misconduct.
Klein exploited gaps in internal oversight, including bypassing risk management processes and targeting junior staff to assist in his cover-up efforts.
Macquarie incurred $57.8 million in losses to unwind the fake trades, though the misconduct did not impact clients or the broader market.
The FCA banned Klein from the financial services industry, while Macquarie has since implemented control improvements and cooperated with the investigation.