The former KPMG partner who now sits on the Macquarie board will be involved in the selection of the financial services giant’s next auditor, even if she won’t be involved in scoring her one-time firm’s bid.

But the asset management and investment bank’s chairman, Glenn Stevens, described privately held concerns about Michelle Hinchliffe’s role among rival firms competing for the $75 million Macquarie audit as “silly talk” and said she was a “highly credentialled, highly esteemed” former partner.