Macquarie bonuses enter new dimension
It's paying more tax and letting "community outcomes" affect the profit share pool in asset management. Has the millionaires' factory gone soft?
After spending half of last week in Federal Court trying to follow the rococo English of senior counsel, I desperately needed some light reading. Macquarie Group's latest financial accounts – released nearly three weeks back – felt like the logical place to start.
Two things stood out to me. The first was the remuneration outcome of Ben Way, the divisional head of Macquarie Asset Management, who earned $20.6 million in financial 2025. Unlike any other ASX-listed company, Macquarie's senior executives receive a share of group profits (in addition to long-term bonuses), and Way's individual profit share outcome for 2025 was $11.5 million.
Each year, all members of group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake's executive committee besides Wikramanayake herself and Macquarie Bank CEO Stuart Green get 50 per cent of their profit share award in cash upfront, while the other half is "retained" and released to them in later years in multiple tranches.[[Wikramanayake gets 30 per cent upfront and 70 per cent retained, while Green gets 40 per cent upfront and 60 per cent retained.]]