The UK’s top financial regulator has promised to review its dealings with whistleblowers, after internal research revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the handling of complaints from industry insiders.
In a study Published on Thursday, the Financial Conduct Authority reported that less than 20% of whistleblowers were satisfied that the watchdog had adequately listened to and investigated their complaints, a perception fueled by widespread frustration at the scant amount of information shared with them after the complaint initial.
After receiving 1,041 whistleblower reports in the year to March 2022 and getting responses from just 21 of the 68 people it asked to complete the survey, the FCA is committed to providing whistleblowers with more information about how their reports are being used.
The regulator has also promised to improve internal systems for sharing whistleblower intelligence, by upgrading its own online portal for filing complaints and making a “full contribution” to the government’s plan revision of the UK whistleblower cadre.
“We need whistleblower intelligence to identify and act on problems in the companies we regulate,” said Therese Chambers, executive director of market enforcement and oversight at FCA.
“We want to make sure we collect and use the information provided by whistleblowers as effectively as possible and provide them with as much information as the law allows about how we have acted on their concerns,” he added.
Sybille Raphael, legal director at the charity Protect, said the FCA has already set aside “very generous” resources for whistleblowers compared to other regulators and that the latest initiative would “help” the watchdog’s engagement with whistleblowers. insiders who wish to warn him of wrongdoing.
He praised the FCA’s promise to boost training for its whistleblower teams: a change the regulator said would allow teams to “get to the heart” of concerns during initial conversations and “ensure that when whistleblowers report to us under stressful circumstances, we are able to recognize it and respond appropriately”.
David Lewis, an employment law professor at Middlesex University, said the FCA had ‘reacted very positively’ to the survey results and was ‘deserving congratulations for being ahead of regulators in other areas’ .
“It rightly focuses on the importance of providing as much feedback to whistleblowers as possible,” he said. “If inadequate feedback is provided, whistleblowers will not feel confident that their concerns are being taken seriously, and potential whistleblowers may be deterred from disclosing information about wrongdoing.”
The FCA said complaint cases closed in the year to March 2022 took an average of 12.25 months to resolve and the progress of cases could be slowed if the suggestions relate to a problem or an investigation. wider.
The regulator publishes quarterly data on whistleblowing reports, which shows that the number of reports has remained broadly stable since 2019.
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