Official whistleblowing programs show how reports move from allegations to investigations, enforcement, and awards. The figures below come from distinct schemes in the United States and United Kingdom, so they describe program activity rather than global whistleblowing prevalence.
Contents
- How large official whistleblower programs are
- What whistleblower reports are about
- What whistleblower reports achieve
- How quickly systems respond
- How institutions protect reporting channels
- What reward design reveals
How large official whistleblower programs are
The scale of a whistleblowing program depends heavily on its mandate. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) handles reports connected with securities markets, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) covers commodities and derivatives. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) operates a tax whistleblower program, and UK regulators publish activity under prescribed-person reporting arrangements.
The SEC awarded more than $255 million to 47 individual whistleblowers in fiscal year 2024. Since the program began in 2011, it had awarded more than $2.2 billion to 444 individual whistleblowers through fiscal year 2024. During FY 2024, the SEC received 396 whistleblower award applications, 49 requests for reconsideration of preliminary award determinations, and issued 163 final orders on whistleblower matters. These figures are reported in the SEC Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2024.
The CFTC received more than 1,700 whistleblower tips in FY 2024, an annual record for its program. It granted 15 whistleblower award applications totaling more than $42 million during that year. From its first award in 2014 through FY 2024, the CFTC had issued 53 orders granting nearly $390 million in awards. The enforcement actions associated with all CFTC program awards had produced more than $3.2 billion in monetary relief over the same period, according to CFTC Releases FY 2024 Enforcement Results.
The UK figures use different reporting periods and definitions. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) received and assessed 1,131 new whistleblowing reports from 1 April 2024 through 31 March 2025. That is a reporting-year total, not a calendar-year or U.S. fiscal-year figure, and it should not be directly combined with the SEC or CFTC counts. The source is the FCA: Prescribed Persons Annual Report 2024/25.
| Program | Period | Report or application activity | Award activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | FY 2024 | 396 award applications | More than $255 million to 47 people |
| CFTC | FY 2024 | More than 1,700 tips | More than $42 million across 15 applications |
| FCA | 1 Apr 2024–31 Mar 2025 | 1,131 new reports assessed | Not stated in this dataset |
What whistleblower reports are about
SEC tip categories in FY 2024 were led by manipulation, which accounted for 37% of tips. Offering fraud represented 21%. Initial coin offerings and crypto-asset securities represented 8%, while corporate disclosures and financials represented another 8%. About 4,200 SEC tips had no allegation category selected. These percentages reflect categories selected by tippers; they are not a complete estimate of all misconduct, and two individuals supplied more than 14,000 FY 2024 tips in total. The figures come from the SEC Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2024.
The IRS data uses Form 211 allegation categories rather than SEC tip categories. In FY 2024, unreported or under-reported income was the most common allegation. General fraud allegations, including tax, wire, and insurance fraud, ranked second. Overstated or false deductions ranked third, followed by failure to file a tax or information return. Under-reported wages or cash paid under the table ranked fifth, employment-tax issues sixth, money laundering seventh, international or offshore issues eighth, incorrect capital-gains treatment ninth, and tax-exempt-entity violations tenth.
These IRS rankings describe claims submitted on Form 211, not the same unit as submissions in every other program. They are useful for understanding the types of tax concerns raised, but they should not be read as a ranking of proven violations. The source is the IRS Whistleblower Office Annual Report 2024.
What whistleblower reports achieve
Reports can contribute at different stages of enforcement. In FY 2024, 27 SEC-awarded whistleblowers caused the Commission to open an investigation or examination that led to an enforcement action. Another 20 significantly contributed to investigations that were already open. Seven whistleblowers received awards for contributions to a related action. Approximately 10% of SEC whistleblowers submitted their award applications jointly with another whistleblower.
The CFTC reported that enforcement actions associated with FY 2024 whistleblower awards produced approximately $162 million in collected monetary relief. Its FY 2024 enforcement results addendum reported 58 new enforcement actions. The CFTC’s collected-relief figure and the SEC contribution counts measure different things: one focuses on monetary results tied to awards, while the other describes how awarded information contributed to cases.
The UK regulatory examples show why case counts need context. The Regulator of Social Housing processed and concluded 40 qualifying disclosure referrals in England during 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, including eight carried-forward cases. It referred 19 disclosures for more detailed consideration and investigated 17. Zero disclosures resulted in or contributed to regulatory action during that reporting year. The source is the Whistleblowing report 2023-24.
That zero should not be interpreted as proof that reporting was ineffective. It is a result for one regulator, one geography, and one reporting year, under that regulator’s qualifying-disclosure definitions. It does show that a large number of referrals does not automatically translate into regulatory action in the same period.
How quickly systems respond
Response speed is best understood as a set of separate steps. The IRS paid FY 2024 awards under Internal Revenue Code section 7623(b) in an average of 48 days after all regulatory requirements were met. The comparable average was 67 days in FY 2023. This is the time after requirements were satisfied, not necessarily the time from a person’s first report to payment.
The IRS processed new whistleblower submissions in an average of 14 days in FY 2024, compared with 15 days in FY 2023. That processing measure is separate from the award-payment measure. Both are reported in the IRS Whistleblower Office Annual Report 2024.
The FCA reviewed and closed 46% of its whistleblowing reports in the reporting year from 1 April 2024 through 31 March 2025, compared with 19% in the prior year. A closure percentage is not the same as a finding of misconduct or a successful enforcement outcome; it describes case handling during the stated period.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) received 17 qualifying external whistleblower disclosures from 1 April 2023 through 31 March 2024. Ten resulted in further investigation and seven were recorded for intelligence. The two outcomes account for all 17 disclosures in the supplied CMA reporting. The CMA also reported zero internal whistleblowing complaints during that period. These figures appear in its Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024.
How institutions protect reporting channels
Program volume is only meaningful when people can report without being impeded or retaliated against. The SEC brought 11 enforcement actions against entities or individuals that impeded whistleblowers in FY 2024. It also brought 11 Rule 21F-17 enforcement actions, more than double the FY 2023 total, and imposed an $18 million penalty in FY 2024, its highest penalty to date for a standalone Rule 21F-17 case.
Since the whistleblower program began, the SEC had filed 32 enforcement actions alleging impediments to reporting and five anti-retaliation enforcement actions through FY 2024. These figures come from the SEC Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2024. They measure regulator enforcement against barriers and retaliation; they do not measure the total number of workplace complaints or the prevalence of retaliation across all employers.
The CMA’s zero internal whistleblowing complaints in 2023-24 is another example where a zero needs careful interpretation. It could describe the activity recorded by that organization under its internal reporting arrangements, but it is not a general benchmark for every employer. Leadership teams should keep the scope, definitions, and reporting channel behind each statistic visible when comparing programs.
What reward design reveals about whistleblowing programs
Awards are distributed unevenly because programs generally connect payments to the value and legal eligibility of information, not simply to the number of reports. The largest SEC whistleblower award in FY 2024 was approximately $98 million, shared by two whistleblowers. The second- and third-largest listed FY 2024 awards were each $37 million, paid to one whistleblower in each case.
The IRS data makes the concentration especially clear. In FY 2024, the IRS paid 84 awards under IRC section 7623(a) and 21 awards under section 7623(b). Section 7623(b) awards represented 20% of award payments but more than 97% of the award dollars paid. The IRS paid $3,000,858 under section 7623(a) and $120,451,124 under section 7623(b).
The IRS reported $17,217,364 in proceeds collected for section 7623(a) awards and $457,459,645 for section 7623(b) awards in FY 2024. It also applied a 5.7% sequestration reduction to whistleblower award payments. The IRS Whistleblower Office Annual Report 2024 reports these monetary totals; they are presented here as published and are not recalculated.
Taken together, the figures show why whistleblowing statistics need more than one headline number. Tip volume indicates demand on a reporting channel. Allegation categories show what people are raising. Investigation and enforcement counts indicate progression, while response times describe administrative handling. Awards reveal the design and concentration of incentives. None of these measures alone is a global prevalence estimate, and the SEC, CFTC, IRS, FCA, CMA, and Regulator of Social Housing figures retain their own legal definitions and reporting periods.