Fincen whistleblowers could earn 30% of penalties in new rule

• Key insight: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing rewards of up to 30% for information that leads to successful illicit activity penalties.
  
• Supporting data: Whistleblowers could earn 10 to 30% of the collected monetary penalties resulting from tips.
  
• Expert quote: "President Trump has been clear that Americans have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "At Treasury, we follow the money, and we strongly encourage individuals to come forward with credible tips to help safeguard our financial system."

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Monday proposed a rule to formally establish rewards for its illicit activity whistleblowers, allowing awards of 10% to 30% of monetary penalties collected from enforcement actions stemming from their tips.

The initiative, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is aimed at incentivizing whistleblowers to flag fraud-related Bank Secrecy Act violations and sanctions-evasion as well as other kinds of illegal financial activity. 

"As promised, Treasury will reward whistleblowers who provide timely, actionable information on fraud, sanctions violations, and other significant illicit finance activity," Bessent said in a release. "President Trump has been clear that Americans have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters. At Treasury, we follow the money, and we strongly encourage individuals to come forward with credible tips to help safeguard our financial system."

Following the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act in 2020 and the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act in 2022, the Treasury's financial crimes department already has a whistleblower program, which is currently taking tips through an agency portal. While whistleblowers are currently eligible for rewards, the agency is now publishing the proposed rule to implement the recent changes in the 2020 and 2022 laws.

The agency's rulemaking "fully implement[s] these statutes," at a time when the federal government is facing a number of new kinds of financial crime-related challenges. The whistleblower hotline, according to the administration, will provide additional incentive to potential informants, to "increase transparency and seek accountability for taxpayer dollars," as the agency says on its website. Fincen has taken a number of additional steps during the Trump administration on illicit activity, including seeking private-sector expertise to combat crime. 

The agency is seeking nominations for a public-private forum advising the government's ongoing efforts to reform the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering regulations. For the 2026 cycle, the agency is particularly interested in members who can speak to modernizing the BSA/AML regime and implement the recently passed GENIUS Act, which created a federal regulatory structure for stablecoins, including anti-money-laundering provisions.

Whether from the increasingly complex methods used by scammers, geopolitical threats or the technological assistance of artificial intelligence, Illicit activity at banks has been increasing for years. In 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says Americans lost more than $16 billion to fraud and scams, marking a 33% increase from 2023. The Federal Trade Commission says fraud cost Americans $12.5 billion in 2024. 

Regulation and compliance

Fincen seeking advisors for panel on modernizing AML

February 25, 2026 1:26 PM

By Ebrima Santos Sanneh

The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has also brought the financial system into the crosshairs of foreign actors who are increasingly waging war online. Earlier this month, the Iranian military command named U.S.- and Israeli-linked banks as targets in the ongoing war.

At the same time, the Treasury Department and other bank regulators — including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — have announced efforts to simplify anti-money-laundering compliance, focusing particularly on how rules can discourage relationships between banks and politically sensitive clients. 

Speaking at an American Bankers Association summit last April in Washington, Secretary Bessent said reforming anti-money-laundering rules was a top priority. Bessent said at the time that the agency would focus on making changes to the framework that "truly focus on national security facilities in higher risk areas and explicitly permit financial institutions to de-prioritize lower risk."

Lobbyists for the Bank Policy Institute published an opinion piece in American Banker in February calling for Fincen to "reassert its control," over AML policy. They called for the agency to move away from process-oriented regulations and focus on the most serious risks as well as remove duplicative or onerous regulations that have low rates of money laundering detection.