Macquarie to repay Shield investors $321 million over failure of super fund
Moderated by Tomas Kauer 
Macquarie Investment Management Ltd (MIML) has today undertaken to repay thousands of people who invested hundreds of millions of dollars from their retirement savings in the collapsed Shield Master Fund (Shield).
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) began proceedings in the Federal Court against MIML, a subsidiary of the Macquarie investment bank, following admissions that it did not act efficiently, honestly and fairly by failing to place Shield on a watch list for heightened monitoring.
The corporate watchdog also accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from MIML to ensure Macquarie pays to members 100 per cent of the amounts they invested in Shield less any amounts withdrawn.
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Under the terms of the enforceable undertaking, Macquarie must pay the funds to affected customers by September 30.
ASIC said, as superannuation trustee, Macquarie Investment Management Ltd oversaw about $321 million in super investments into Shield by about 3000 of its members between 2022 and 2023.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the watchdog's investigation will see Macquarie return these members to the position they were in before their retirement savings were dwindled.
"This is an important outcome that stems the significant losses that threatened thousands of members' retirement savings after they used Macquarie's platform to invest their super in Shield," she said.
"Many members thought their funds were safe when they used Macquarie's super platform to invest in Shield, which had no track record."
The payments will be made in full by next Tuesday.
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Under the agreement, ASIC is not seeking civil penalties against MIML, despite admitting it breached the law.
The corporate watchdog said this was in recognition of the level of cooperation demonstrated by Macquarie in agreeing to pay members 100 per cent of the amounts invested in Shield less any amounts withdrawn, without waiting for an outcome of the Shield liquidation or proceedings against other parties involved.
Macquarie Group said its decision "to devote resources to achieve this outcome recognises Shield's unique circumstances, notably the scale of the issue, its material impact on many investors and their limited access to recourse from the many different entities which played a role".
"The approach of providing immediate certainty and an improved outcome for investors benefits all parties," the bank said.
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