Dive Brief:

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved amendments to whistleblower rules aimed at expanding incentives in a program that since 2010 has awarded more $1.3 billion to individuals who flagged wrongdoing at publicly traded companies.
• The SEC in a 3-2 vote on Friday established authority to award whistleblowers for actions brought by other agencies such as the Justice Department, while eliminating SEC authority to reduce a potential award when it is considering an increase. The approvals revised rules made under the Trump administration.
• “These rules will strengthen our whistleblower program,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. “That helps protect investors.” The SEC has brought more than $5 billion in sanctions based on information from whistleblowers.

Dive Insight:

The rule changes drew criticism from two SEC commissioners. The amendments are “solutions in search of a problem,” Hester Peirce said in a statement, adding that they “carry harmful consequences for both the whistleblower program and for the commission’s rulemaking process.”

The changes complicate “the already Byzantine rules governing” the whistleblower program and are just one of several examples where the agency has unnecessarily revised recently adopted mandates, according to Peirce, appointed under the Trump administration.

Commissioner Mark Uyeda, appointed by the Biden administration, echoed Peirce’s concern. “The decision to revisit recently adopted rules risks...

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