The UK’s top financial regulator has vowed to overhaul its dealings with whistleblowers, after in-house research revealed widespread dissatisfaction with its handling of complaints from industry insiders.
In a study published on Thursday, the Financial Conduct Authority reported that fewer than 20 per cent of whistleblowers were satisfied that the watchdog had properly heard and investigated their complaints — a perception fuelled by widespread frustration with how little information was shared with them after the initial complaint.
After receiving 1,041 whistleblower reports in the year to March 2022 and securing responses from just 21 of the 68 people it asked to complete the survey, the FCA has pledged to give whistleblowers more information on how their tips are used.
The regulator also promised to improve internal systems for sharing whistleblower intelligence, upgrade its online portal for submitting whistleblowing complaints and make a “full contribution” to the government’s planned review of the UK’s whistleblower framework.
“We need the intelligence whistleblowers provide to identify and act on problems in the firms we regulate,” said Therese Chambers, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight.
“We want to make sure we’re capturing and using the information provided by whistleblowers as effectively as possible, and to give them as much information as the law allows on how we have acted on their concerns,” she added.
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