On February 10, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced two proposed amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower program.  The first proposed amendment pertains to related action awards for enforcement actions carried out by other agencies.  Under the proposed language, the SEC would be permitted to pay whistleblowers related action awards even when the agency that carried out the related action has its own whistleblower program.  The second proposed amendment affirms that the SEC can consider the potential dollar amount of an award when deciding to increase an award size while, at the same time, eliminates the SEC’s ability to consider dollar amount for the purpose of decreasing an award.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler said: “I support these amendments, because, if adopted, they would help ensure that whistleblowers are both incentivized and appropriately rewarded for their efforts in reporting potential violations of the law to the Commission.”

Read Chair Gensler’s full statement here.

Read the SEC’s proposed rule here.

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