By Scott Murdoch, Renju Jose and Christine Chen
SYDNEY, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Macquarie Group Chairman Glenn Stevens said on Friday the Australian investment bank could reconsider the appointment of KPMG as its auditor following the firm's alleged misuse of client data to win audit contracts.
Stevens, appearing at a parliamentary hearing in Canberra, said the bank had asked KPMG to investigate whether it had the resources to be the bank's auditor after a number of senior partners left.
Macquarie has also
asked KPMG to deliver evidence the auditing firm did not use confidential information from other audit accounts to win the bank's account, he said.
KPMG will become Macquarie's auditor in 2028, replacing PwC which has worked with the bank for more than 50 years. KPMG was selected in 2025 and still has to be approved by the bank's shareholders.
Stevens said the KPMG response to Macquarie's request is due back shortly, but he did not outline an exact date.
"If the (KPMG) allegations are true and I'm not here to make a judgement, but if they are, there would appear to have been inappropriate behaviour that we need a high level of confidence that won't happen and didn't happen in the pursuit of our audit," Stevens said.
Stevens said there was still time for Macquarie to "revisit" its decision to appoint KPMG, but he added the investment bank needed to make a final decision soon.
The day-long parliamentary hearing is the second to be called since accusations from an anonymous whistleblower that KPMG's staff used inside information to win lucrative audit contracts came to light in March.
While KPMG initially said the allegations were unsubstantiated, the scandal has since led to the resignations of the firm's CEO, audit boss and chairman.
A number of staff implicated in the scandal have either left or been sanctioned after the firm confirmed "unacceptable" misuse of internal documents. KPMG has admitted it has mishandled the whistleblower complaint and has launched a fourth internal investigation after previous ones failed to substantiate any wrongdoing.
Australia's second-largest lender, Westpac, has been caught up in the KPMG scandal and Westpac director Peter Nash has since resigned from the bank's board due to his ties with the auditing firm. KPMG senior partner Kim Lawry also resigned after Westpac requested her removal as its lead auditor.
Westpac's audit committee chair Michael Ullmer told the hearing Nash should not have contacted his former KPMG colleagues during the tender process. Martin Sheppard, the former KPMG chairman, told an earlier hearing that Nash had stayed at his house during the pitching process as the pair were long-standing friends.
"Yes, I believe he did fail because that was clearly something that should not have occurred during the process," he said.
The KPMG whistleblower, a former senior executive, alleges confidential client files from Lendlease were misused to win audit work with Westpac and Dexus.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch, Renju Jose and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Lincoln Feast)
