Members of the public, staff, officers, or agents of financial services businesses may occasionally come across activities which indicate that regulatory misconduct may have taken place. A whistleblowing telephone line is operated by the Commission to assist callers in reporting such information.
Calls made to the whistleblowing line cannot be traced by the Commission. During normal working hours, calls will be answered by a member of the Commission's Intelligence Services Team. In their absence and outside of normal working hours, the line will revert to voicemail; this is only accessible to members of that team.
Callers may be asked to provide their name and contact details but if they prefer, they can remain anonymous.
Those not wishing to make a telephone call may send a message to a dedicated email address. This email address is only accessed by members of the Commission's Intelligence Services Team. Anyone wishing to send a message by this method can easily preserve their anonymity by setting up their own new email address.
All information provided through the whistleblowing line or email address will be assessed for consideration of further action. If further action is taken, details of the person making the report still remains confidential, and no reference is made to the fact that information was received via the whistleblowing facility.
It should be noted that there is no statutory protection for breaches of confidence by staff of regulated businesses calling the whistleblowing line or sending messages to the whistleblowing email address. Whilst all information provided to the Commission will be treated in the strictest confidence, the Commission cannot guarantee that a whistleblower's identity could not be discovered through, for example, a Court Order, or as a result of an investigation by a law enforcement agency.