Former RBA governor’s damning $700m question for KPMG

Updated August 14, 2026 — 10:56am,first published August 14, 2026 — 9:25am

Former RBA governor and Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens said he expects to get answers soon that will help the $100 billion finance giant determine whether KPMG should still be handed lucrative audit work.

Macquarie last month revealed it was reviewing whether KPMG should keep a prized Macquarie audit tender it won last year, after it was revealed the accounting firm had misused confidential client data.

The audit contract at Macquarie is worth about $70 million a year. Macquarie’s current auditor, PWC, has held the contract since the early 1990s, but Macquarie has committed to reviewing the contract every ten years, making it worth about $700 million over the next decade.

At a parliamentary hearing into the KPMG scandal on Friday, Stevens made clear that the core allegations of senior KPMG executives accessing confidential client information to win fresh work, is top of mind.