UK Regulators Urged to Use Whistleblower Awards to Fight Financial Corruption

On November 29, the Financial Times published, “UK regulators have wrong attitude to whistleblowing.” In this letter, the Managing Director of a UK-based financial services firm, Mark Turner, recognizes the vital role that UK whistleblowers play in exposing corruption in the financial industry and the hardships they face after doing so.

Turner suggest that negative attitudes towards whistleblowers in the UK need to change to encourage more whistleblowing. Currently they are viewed as disloyal employees. Turner points to the recent revelations from Danske Bank money laundering scandal which highlighted that lack of protections for whistleblowers such as Howard Wilkinson.

Turner recommends the UK reconsider adopting whistleblower incentive laws similar to those in the U.S which have proven to be successful. Recently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported to Congress that the SEC Whistleblower Program had a record-breaking year. The report revealed that the program recovered $1.7 million to the U.S. Treasury. Whistleblowers received over $168 million in whistleblower awards payouts.

“Whistleblowers are the number one source of fraud detection and any effective anti-corruption program must incentivize these invaluable sources of information,” said Wilkinson’s whistleblower lawyer, Stephen M. Kohn. “Whistleblowers need effective laws that aid in the fight against corruption, tax evasion and bribery,” he continued.

Read: UK regulators have wrong attitude to whistleblowing