Silence in the City – whistleblowers in the wilderness

Despite financial services firms’ legal and regulatory obligations, employees who raise misconduct concerns about their workplace report that reprisals are still commonplace. Denis O’Connor examines the latest findings from whistleblowing charity Protect.

Denis O’Connoris a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers’ Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group’s board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Firms need to do a considerable amount of work if whistleblowers are to feel confident that they will not be victimised and that their concerns will be properly investigated according to ‘Silence in the City’, [1] a recently-published report by the whistleblowers’ charity, Protect. Although the Financial Conduct Authority’s Whistleblowing Rules cover most, but not all, sectors of the industry, 70 per cent of financial services workers who contacted Protect were victimised after they raised their concerns, while 58 per cent were ignored after complaining about their own victimisation and 33 per cent said their initial complaints were ignored.