Financial Regulation International
From risk to reward - how to effectively incentivise whistleblowers
by Thomas Cattee
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has long been a supporter of the introduction of a whistleblowing incentivisation scheme, looking
jealously towards the US authorities' track record on successful enforcement. In December 2024, the SFO welcomed a paper on
incentivisation by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI),
1 which analysed numerous overseas regimes, coming out in support of implementation. In March 2025, HMRC announced the introduction
of a formal scheme for whistleblowing incentivisation in relation to tax violations. Hot on its heels, in April 2025, the
SFO published its Business Plan for 2025-26, in which it confirmed that the agency will push forward intelligence, enforcement
and prevention through the "progress [of] whistleblower incentivisation reform"
2 in the next 12 months.