A new whistleblowing regime has been launched in the UAE aimed at increasing transparency around how regulatory concerns are handled. The new regulations have been launched by the DFSA, the financial regulator in the Dubai International Financial Centre. They will bolster protections for employees operating within the DIFC, the leading financial hub in the region, and encourage an environment of transparency and accountability. This is a significant development and takes the DIFC and the UAE further in the journey to create an environment of transparency and accountability.

Gulf Business reports on this and its relevance to HR professionals. According to DFSA, the policies and procedures put in place by regulated firms should be appropriate to the nature, scale and complexity of that entity’s business and must be reviewed periodically to ensure they are adequate, effective, and up to date. The firm should also, as part of implementing these new requirements, inform all its officers and employees of the protections available to them.

Ruth Stephen writes about this for Outlaw. In ‘UAE’s new whistleblowing regime ‘significant and positive’ step for employees’ she explains how employees can now hide their identities when reporting suspected misconduct either internally or externally provided certain conditions are met. So, they must have a “reasonable suspicion” that the legislation has been breached and the disclosure must be made in “good faith” – so very similar to the...