A proposed rule implementing the whistleblower program from U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) could significantly increase enforcement risk for companies subject to anti-money laundering and sanctions laws—while creating powerful financial incentives for employees and third parties to report potential violations. FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on April 1, 2026, to implement the program enacted by Congress in 2020, which provides robust financial incentives and legal protections for individuals who report such violations.
Key Takeaways
- Widely applicable. The proposed rule, if adopted, would impact every company with obligations to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and U.S. sanctions.
- Generous rewards. Awards would range between 10%–30% of monetary penalties over $1 million collected in resulting enforcement actions.
- Encourages internal reporting. Individuals who report violations first to their employers and later to FinCEN would remain eligible for rewards. This approach incentivizes internal reporting and increases pressure on companies to ensure they respond appropriately and expeditiously to compliance concerns escalated by employees.
- Special rules for control functions. Whistleblowers in the compliance and audit function, among others, would be required to wait 120 days before reporting to FinCEN, giving companies an opportunity to address and remediate internally identified violations during that period.
- Impact on voluntary disclosure decisions. The significant potential awards would increase the risk that employees and third parties report compliance concerns to the U.S. government, particularly those that remain unresolved. Companies would need to weigh this risk when considering whether to voluntarily disclose potential violations of the BSA and sanctions laws.
Overview of the Proposed Rule
If adopted, the proposed rule would implement the whistleblower program created by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. The program would offer monetary rewards to individuals who provide “original information” leading to successful enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Department of the Treasury or the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and several economic sanctions laws.
FinCEN expects the proposed rule to lead to an increase in the number of whistleblower tips, which would facilitate Treasury’s and DOJ’s enforcement of the covered laws. The availability of rewards for reporting violations of laws authorizing U.S. sanctions, including those under which the Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP) administered by Treasury’s Office of Investment Security, and the Data Security Program (DSP) requirements administered by DOJ were issued, would broaden the impact of whistleblower reporting significantly beyond financial institutions subject to BSA requirements to any company covered by these requirements—which, for U.S. sanctions laws, broadly includes all U.S. persons.
Eligibility
Awards would be available only to natural persons. Certain individuals, such as government officials acting in that capacity, would not qualify for awards.
Original Information
An individual would have to possess and voluntarily submit “original information” to Treasury, DOJ, or their employer related to the alleged legal violation to be eligible to receive an award. The proposed rule defines “original information” expansively; in sum, information would be considered “original” if based on the whistleblower’s independent knowledge or analysis, not obtained exclusively from publicly available sources, and not already known to Treasury or DOJ. Information would be considered to be submitted “voluntarily” if submitted before the whistleblower receives any request, inquiry, or demand related to the original information, such as a government subpoena or informal inquiry.
The proposed rule would, if finalized, provide rewards to individuals that initially disclose violations to their employer and later report the information to FinCEN within a reasonable time.
Submission Process
In general, a whistleblower—or, if applicable, the whistleblower’s attorney—would be required to submit original information to FinCEN using its secure online portal, to certify the information is true and complete, and to provide continuing cooperation throughout the government’s investigation. The proposed rule provides that if the whistleblower first reports information to a part of Treasury other than FinCEN, or to the DOJ or their employer, the whistleblower must also provide the same information to FinCEN within a reasonable amount of time to be eligible for an award. Other important aspects of the proposed tip submission process include:
- 120-day waiting period for certain individuals: Certain whistleblowers who learn of potential violations from a company’s internal audit and compliance program would have to wait at least 120 calendar days from the date they obtained the information before submitting the tip to FinCEN. The purpose of the waiting period is to provide companies that invest in strong internal audit and compliance programs the opportunity to review and analyze potential violations of a covered statute, and to address and/or voluntarily disclose information to the government.
- Successful enforcement: To be eligible for a reward, a whistleblower’s original information would have to lead to the successful enforcement of a covered action or a related action. The proposed rule defines a “covered action” as a single judicial or administrative action brought by Treasury or DOJ that has been (i) successfully enforced and (ii) results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1 million, including penalties, fines, and settlement payments, but not restitution, blocked property, and forfeiture, among other things. “Related action” would be defined as any action brought by other federal and/or state agencies—which may be a violation of a law different from the one in the covered action—based upon the original information provided by a whistleblower that leads to the successful enforcement of a covered action.
- Calculation of penalties: The proposed rule aims to remove financial roadblocks that may discourage individuals from coming forward. Under the proposed rule, FinCEN may aggregate amounts recovered as part of a successful enforcement of a covered statute based on information from the whistleblower with amounts recovered as a result of enforcement of other statutes or information not provided by the whistleblower to reach the $1 million threshold. In addition, FinCEN could treat as a single covered action two or more actions that “arise out of substantially the same facts and are successfully enforced at substantially the same time” for purposes of reaching the threshold.
- Award applications: After a covered action is successfully enforced, a whistleblower would be required to request an award from FinCEN no later than 90 days after the notice of covered action was first published on Treasury’s website (and no later than 180 days for related actions).
- Award payment: FinCEN would issue whistleblowers monetary awards (subject to the availability of Congressionally-allocated funds) between 10%–30% of the collected monetary sanctions imposed in the action. To create stronger incentives for reporting, FinCEN would presume the maximum 30% for actions in which the monetary sanction amount is $15 million or less. FinCEN would have discretion to determine the award amount based on a combination of mandatory and discretionary factors.
Legal Protections to Encourage Reporting
To further incentivize reporting potentially illicit activity, FinCEN seeks to provide whistleblowers with strong confidentiality and other legal protections.
- Confidentiality. The proposed rule would preclude FinCEN from disclosing any information that could reasonably reveal the identity of a whistleblower, except when legally required.
- Anti-retaliation. With limited exceptions, the proposed rule would prohibit an employer from retaliating against a whistleblower. In particular, employers would be barred from impeding, discouraging, hindering, or delaying a whistleblower from communicating with Treasury or DOJ regarding a potential violation. An employee who believes their employer has retaliated against them could seek relief by filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor and, in some circumstances, filing a lawsuit against the employer in federal court.
- Non-waiver of rights. A whistleblower’s rights and remedies provided for in the proposed rule could not be waived in any manner, including by a predispute arbitration agreement.
What Companies Should Consider Doing
The proposed rule implicates various legal and programmatic issues for companies. To avoid a potential whistleblower action, companies should consider:
- Reviewing and strengthening their internal audit and compliance programs, with a focus on ensuring they are able to timely identify, assess, and remediate activities that implicate or potentially violate the BSA, sanctions, the DSP, or the OISP.
- Updating internal reporting and escalation channels and related processes for addressing escalated transactions, including ensuring that anti-retaliation policies are in place and that relevant employees receive training in the handling of internal complaints.
- Promoting a culture that encourages reporting potential violations, particularly related to the BSA, sanctions, the OISP, and the DSP.
Companies may also consider submitting comments to FinCEN before the June 1, 2026, deadline to help shape the final rule.