Overview
Macquarie Group Ltd. is an investment bank and diversified financial services firm based in Sydney. It provides banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. It owns the Australian Macquarie Bank Ltd. and the U.K.'s Macquarie Bank International. It has more than 60 locations in 27 countries.
The company logo is a stylized version of the "Holey Dollar," which Australia's early governor Lachlan Macquarie created in 1813 by punching out the centers of Spanish silver dollars to produce the colony's first domestic coinage and thereby overcome an acute currency shortage.
The company is looking to transform itself into a global trading and advisory business and expand in the U.S. and Europe. It recently severed its management ties over separately listed funds that house airport, theme-park, media and toll-road assets and bought a number of niche advisory and investment firms offshore. Three of its publicly traded infrastructure funds received scrutiny from corporate governance critics who raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest and the way that they're managed.
Recruiting
Macquarie has been known in Australia as the millionaires factory, but it recently cut its payout to employees to 40% of revenues. Management vows that its compensation ratio will return to historic levels of 45% to 48% as business improves.
Macquarie's employment screening uses a professional assessment which includes verbal, numerical, abstract reasoning and personality questionnaires. The company leaflet says the personality assessment has no right or wrong answers; it's just about your personal style. Several sample questions are offered, for example, rating on a scale of 1 to 5 how strongly you agree or disagree with a statement such as "I enjoy meeting new people" or "I sometimes make mistakes."