In order to encourage the public to report illegal financial activities, increase the incentive to whistle blow, and maintain financial market order, the FSC on 11 January 2021 amended the aforementioned Directions. Key points of the amended provisions are as follows:
1.A newly added provision specifies that one of the purposes of the Directions is to maintain financial market order.
2.In order to increase the incentive to whistle blow, the rewards for reporting serious illegal financial activities were increased tenfold, and the rewards for reporting minor illegal financial activities were increased fivefold.
3.Given that various financial industry self-regulatory organizations (SROs) have also adopted measures to encourage public reporting of illegal activities, a new article provides that with respect to a single case for which both the FSC and a SRO offer whistleblower rewards, if the formulas for calculating the awards result in a combined amount that exceeds the maximum reward amount as set out in these Directions, the whistleblower will not receive that part of the reward which exceeds the maximum amount.
4.To prevent the public from making frivolous whistleblower reports, to avoid false claiming of whistleblower rewards, and to confirm the veracity of reported information, a new article provides that the FSC will not grant a reward when a whistleblower report is provided anonymously or by a person who uses a false name. Also, original Article 9 (1) requires a whistleblower to provide as many items of evidence as possible. Considering that it is the agency which accepts a whistleblower report should determine in certain cases whether it is necessary to supplement the information originally provided (provided, however, that a whistleblower is never compelled to furnish their name), the provisions governing when an agency that accepts a whistleblower report should notify the whistleblower to provide supplementary information have been deleted from the amended Directions.