FCA receives 279 new whistleblowing reports in Q4 2021
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its whistleblowing data for the final quarter of 2021. The data shows the number of new whistleblowing reports the FCA received between October and December 2021 and the type of allegations involved.
The regulator assesses every whistleblowing case it receives that falls within its remit, to inform its work and help it identify actual or potential harm. This could be harm to consumers, to markets, to the UK economy or to wider society.
In 2021 Q4 (October-December), the FCA received 279 new whistleblowing reports.
A whistleblower can choose to remain anonymous when making a report through any of the FCA’s reporting options. Whistleblowers need to feel comfortable when making a report so they can provide relevant and sufficient detail to help its review of their concerns.
The FCA Whistleblowing team reviews all reports to make sure it manages information from whistleblowers appropriately. The FCA redirects any information it gets from consumers or firms to other relevant teams to consider, such as the Supervision Hub.
The FCA accepts both anonymous and identified whistleblowing reports.
Protecting the identities of the whistleblowers who contact the regulator is deemed vital. The FCA understand they may be hesitant to share their personal information with it when making a disclosure.
Every report the FCA receives will contain one or more allegations of wrongdoing. The FCA received 279 reports in the final quarter of 2021, containing 525 allegations in total.
Typically, the reports the FCA receives will contain allegations that fall under the following five overarching themes:
- treating customers fairly;
- FSMA;
- fitness and propriety;
- culture;
- compliance.
In the chart below, the FCA lists the top 10 allegations made in whistleblowing reports in this period.