The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price is underperforming the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) in today's trading session. At the time of writing, shares in Macquarie are trading for $158.22 – up 0.84%. While this is in the green, the ASX 200 is up a monstrous 1.41%.
One reason the financial giant may be underperforming is due to a damning speech against the company in federal parliament.
Let's take a closer look at today's news.
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Macquarie's role in the Nuix IPO
In a speech to the Australian Senate, NSW Senator Deb O'Neill slammed Macquarie Group for its role in the IPO of scandal-riddled Nuix Ltd (ASX: NXL).
Senator O'Neill pushed back against Macquarie's claims it could not disclose its role in the Nuix IPO.
"While I respect Macquarie wanting to maintain confidentiality and legal professional privilege, I am concerned that there is a misunderstanding of the role of parliament to get to the truth of matters that impact Australians," she is quoted as saying in The Australian newspaper.
The senator goes on to say Nuix's continued profit downgrades, which totalled $3 billion in lost income, "is a bigger concern to me as a Senator than the legal privilege and confidentiality for a bank".
This added scrutiny and uncertainty may be hampering Macquarie's share price today.
Macquarie has previously said it "found no signs of wrongdoing" over the Nuix IPO in which the bank was materially involved. In fact, Macquarie still owns a 30% stake in the technology sector company.
This hasn't stopped the corporate regulator, ASIC, from continuing its investigation into the company's IPO. The chair of ASIC recently had to remove herself from the investigation over potential conflicts of interest. This action was taken after Senator O'Neill raised questions.
Macquarie share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, the Macquarie share price has increased 29.4%. Year-to-date shareholders have seen a 12.7% return on investment in the company. The current share price is only just under its 52-week high of $162.06 per share.
Macquarie Group has a market capitalisation of around $58.2 billion.
