U.K. whistleblowers were responsible for the most overseas tip-offs to the U.S. financial authority last fiscal year, a new study reveals.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received 3,238 tip-offs in total in the past year, with 12 percent of these coming from abroad, according to global investigations firm Kroll.
One in six tip-offs to the SEC were received from the U.K., in a year that saw a 25 percent increase in the number of tip-offs from foreign countries to the American regulators.
Kroll also revealed a 35 percent increase in the number of cases being reported by whistleblowers to the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), from 3,813 to 5,150 between November 2012 and October 2013.
This has resulted in a steep rise in the number of cases being created by the FCA, increasing 72 percent in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period the previous year.
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"As companies increasingly invest in often risky emerging markets and more stringent regulation and guidance governing whistleblowing procedures is introduced, we believe cases of whistleblowing will continue to rise," Benedict Hamilton, a Managing Director at Kroll said in a press release.
Whistleblowing has been in the spotlight after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden released explosive documents detailing the extent of the U.S.'s surveillance operations. The revelations have prompted huge furore from politicians and companies implicated in the saga.
