Retaliation banned, arbitration clauses voided – is your HR team prepared?
Employees at hundreds of thousands of companies could soon earn millions for reporting financial crimes directly to the federal government.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, published a proposed rule on April 1, 2026, that would create a formal whistleblower program with significant financial rewards and workplace protections. The program would pay individuals between 10 and 30 percent of monetary sanctions collected in enforcement actions exceeding $1 million – meaning a single tip could translate into a multimillion-dollar payout for the person who filed it.
The reach of the proposed program is vast. FinCEN estimates that more than 291,000 financial institutions and roughly 1.8 million other businesses fall within scope. That includes banks, credit unions, insurance companies, broker-dealers, investment advisers, money services businesses, casinos, and dealers in precious metals. It also extends well beyond the financial sector to cover construction firms, manufacturers, healthcare organizations, energy companies, tech firms, shipping and logistics operators, and agricultural businesses – essentially any entity with obligations under federal anti-money laundering or economic sanctions laws.
For HR professionals, the proposed rule raises immediate compliance concerns on several fronts.
The anti-retaliation provisions would prohibit employers from firing, demoting, suspending, threatening, blacklisting, harassing, or otherwise penalizing any employee who reports potential violations to the government or cooperates with federal investigators. That protection extends to post-employment conditions as well, meaning former employees would also be covered. These provisions do not apply to employers already covered by the whistleblower protections in section 33 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act or sections 213 and 214 of the Federal Credit Union Act, which separately protect employees of banks and credit unions from retaliation. The Department of Labor already put an interim final rule in place on January 14, 2025, establishing procedures for workers to file retaliation complaints under the program.
The proposed rule would also void any predispute arbitration agreement that attempts to require arbitration of a whistleblower dispute. Employment contracts, company policies, and workplace forms containing such clauses would be unenforceable for claims arising under this program. HR teams that have not already reviewed their arbitration agreements in light of this development would need to do so.
Employers would additionally be barred from doing anything to discourage, hinder, or delay workers from communicating directly with Treasury or the Department of Justice about potential violations. Confidentiality agreements and nondisclosure provisions would not override an employee's right to contact the government about possible violations of the covered statutes.
The financial incentives embedded in the program could meaningfully shift how employees think about using internal reporting channels. The proposed rule includes a presumption that whistleblowers will receive the maximum 30 percent award when 30 percent of the collected monetary sanctions comes to $15 million or less. That creates a strong pull for workers to go straight to the government rather than flagging concerns through internal compliance hotlines or HR.
FinCEN acknowledged this tension and proposed a 120-day waiting period for certain employees before they can file a tip with the agency. The waiting period applies to officers, directors, trustees, partners, audit personnel, compliance staff, and employees of firms retained to perform those functions. The idea is to give companies that have invested in internal compliance programs time to review and respond to potential issues before they reach federal investigators.
The agency has been receiving whistleblower tips since 2021, averaging about 87 original submissions per year. FinCEN anticipates that number could potentially double or more once the formal program takes effect.
The proposed rule was signed by FinCEN Director Andrea M. Gacki. Public comments are due by June 1, 2026, and can be submitted through the federal rulemaking portal at regulations.gov under Docket Number FINCEN-2026-0067. The rule has not been finalized and remains subject to revision following the comment period.
