A SURVEY of former Storm Financial clients who obtained Macquarie Bank margin loans has exposed serious deficiencies in Macquarie's submission to a parliamentary inquiry.
Macquarie's submission, lodged with a cover letter signed by the Macquarie Bank managing director Richard Sheppard, states Macquarie's margin loan business "ensured that all affected clients were made aware of their margin call obligations, and were in a position to take action in a timely manner".
But almost two-thirds of the 30 former Storm clients who responded to a BusinessDay survey said they had never received a margin call on their Macquarie margin loan accounts.
The survey results point to a significant failure in Macquarie's margin loan processes, a matter that is not addressed in its submission to the parliamentary inquiry.
In the survey, BusinessDay asked five questions of more than 50 former Storm Financial clients with Macquarie margin loans who had contacted the newspaper. Of these, 30 responded, some 5 per cent of the estimated 600 Storm Financial clients who received Macquarie margin loans.
None of the respondents seemed able to "take action in a timely manner", saying they were sold out of their portfolios at an average loan-to-value ratio of 96.7 per cent.
And 19 said they had received no margin call from Macquarie.
The apparent failure to contact margin loan clients and sell them down in a timely fashion proved disastrous for Storm Financial clients in market falls that occurred last year.
Jason Wilson, a Storm client based in the Brisbane suburb of Cleveland, said he did not hear from Macquarie before he said he was sold out at 98 per cent, even though he had extra money he could have tipped into the account.
Asked about Macquarie's submission that it had made all clients aware of their margin loan obligations, Mr Wilson said: ''It's just not the truth … no one from Macquarie rang me whatsoever.''
Commonwealth Bank has entered a mediation process that covers its margin loans, but Macquarie has refused to answer questions about compensation.
