Fincen's failure to write whistleblower rules damages its mission

• Key insight: Fincen is charged with protecting the U.S. financial system, but its failure to implement a whistleblower program authorized in 2022 leaves the agency unable to capitalize on a key source of intelligence.
• What's at stake: Without adequate support, staffing and rules, Fincen's whistleblower program runs the risk of undermining whistleblowers' confidence.
• Forward look: The Treasury Department should pave the way for whistleblowers to help Fincen carry out its mandate by adding enforcement staff and issuing final rules implementing the whistleblower program.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Treasury Department bureau with responsibilities that include disrupting terror and drug financing networks, plays an outsize role in defending U.S. national security interests. With only a few hundred full-time personnel, this relatively tiny agency has consistently punched above its weight, levying billions of dollars in civil penalties against offenders in recent years for money laundering and other violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

Given Fincen's massive responsibilities and its effective enforcement of anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act violations, the agency should be a high priority for receiving backing from the current administration, particularly as criminal financing networks become more complex and opaque. Yet, the number of agency personnel has declined in recent years, even though more are needed to counter increased threats. As of November 2025, the agency had 244 employees, 31 fewer employees or 11% less than it did the previous year.

In addition, Fincen's whistleblower reward program, authorized by Congress five years ago, is positioned to turbocharge money-laundering enforcement and greatly help current agency efforts. The whistleblower reward program incentivizes knowledgeable individuals to bring needed transparency to highly secretive money-laundering transactions and expose sanctions violations.

The Fincen whistleblower program stands to be a rich source of intelligence for the U.S. government, particularly in the areas of combating terrorism financing, money laundering and sanctions evasions. Yet despite its potential, the whistleblower program is hobbled by agency understaffing and the lack of program rules. Treasury has yet to issue final rules implementing the whistleblower program or make its first whistleblower award, despite receiving hundreds of whistleblower tips in the years since the program's inception. This delay places the Fincen whistleblower program at risk of potential whistleblowers losing confidence in the program.

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February 25

Implementing rules for the program has bipartisan support. Earlier this month, Senators Chuck Grassley and John Fetterman published a letter to Fincen Director Andrea Gacki and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging the agency to pass final rules for the Fincen whistleblower program and detailing the risks that a delay in implementation poses to the promise of the program. The letter reprised many of the same concerns that Senator Grassley and others laid out in a similar 2024 letter to Director Gacki.

Similar whistleblower programs that swiftly received government resources have flourished. After their creation by Congress in 2010, the SEC and CFTC whistleblower programs quickly staffed up and promulgated rules which no doubt contributed to their success. The SEC issued final rules for its whistleblower program effective Aug. 12, 2011, and paid its first award to a whistleblower on Aug. 12, 2012. By fiscal year 2024, the SEC reported receiving approximately 24,980 tips from whistleblowers, illustrating the massive growth of the program. Similarly, the CFTC issued its first rules in October 2011 and announced its first whistleblower award on May 20, 2014. Since their inception, the SEC and CFTC programs have collected over $6.3 billion and over $3.2 billion in monetary sanctions, respectively. By any measure, the SEC and CFTC programs have been extremely successful in aiding the agencies in uncovering fraud, deterring future violations and recovering money for the government.

Without adequate support, staffing, and rules, Fincen's whistleblower program runs the risk of undermining whistleblowers' confidence in its program and missing out on valuable information that could support national security interests. For example, the program has yet to standardize procedures and processes for whistleblowers to file whistleblower tips anonymously — an issue of paramount importance to whistleblowers, who are often highly placed insiders and fear retaliation and other consequences if their identities are revealed. For a program intended to disrupt terrorism and criminal financing, anonymity is not just a precaution, it is a critical security measure for whistleblowers. Issuing rules and procedures would provide whistleblowers and their counsel clarity on these important points.

Whistleblowers with valuable information for Fincen are ready and willing to come forward. The Department of the Treasury should pave the way for whistleblowers to help Fincen carry out its mandate to fortify the U.S. financial system by adding enforcement staff and issuing final rules implementing the whistleblower program. Doing so would serve the agency's laudable goals to protect the U.S. financial system from illicit activity, fight money laundering and terrorism financing, and promote national security interests.