Morgan Stanley Australia Securities Limited (“Morgan Stanley”) has paid a penalty of $123,750 to comply with an infringement notice given to it by the Markets Disciplinary Panel (“MDP”).

The MDP had reasonable grounds to believe that Morgan Stanley contravened subsection 798H(1) of the Corporations Act by reason of contravening a number of account reconciliation rules in Part 2.3 of the ASIC Market Integrity Rules (ASX 24 Market) 2011 in relation to client monies.

The MDP was satisfied that Morgan Stanley:

1. failed to perform its monthly reconciliation for November 2014;
2. failed to provide ASIC with monthly reconciliations for each month between September 2013 to May 2015;
3. failed to provide an explanation for a variation in relation to NZD monthly reconciliation for June 2014;
4. failed to provide an explanation why the movement in total futures client monies was more than 20% from the last business day of the prior month for the monthly reconciliations for February and March 2015;
5. failed to provide a statement signed by a director as to the accuracy of the monthly reconciliation in respect of the monthly reconciliations for September 2013, July 2014, September 2014 and December 2014;
6. failed to prepare and give to ASIC annual declarations in relation to its 2013 and 2014 financial years; and
7. failed to provide accurate prior date balances in its daily reconciliation for 28 March 2014 and failed to provide explanations in its daily reconciliations for 6 May 2014, 17 October 2014 and 8 December 2014 as to why total futures client monies was greater than 20% from the prior day.

Download the infringement notice

The compliance with the infringement notice is not an admission of guilt or liability, and Morgan Stanley is not taken to have contravened subsection 798H(1) of the Corporations Act.