The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced their first big, multi-million-dollar whistleblower award on Monday, under a program that’s similar to the one adopted by securities regulators.

The CFTC has awarded more than US$10 million to a whistleblower who provided original information that led to a successful enforcement action by the commission. The award is by far the largest made under the CFTC’s whistleblower program so far. The two previous awards were for US$240,000 and US$290,000.

The CFTC did not reveal the details of whistleblower cases in order to protect the identity and confidentiality of whistleblowers. As with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) program, the CFTC’s whistleblower program was created in the wake of the financial crisis to pay monetary awards to tipsters that come forward with information that leads an enforcement action that results in monetary sanctions of at least US$1 million. Under the program, whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10% and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected.

“By providing robust financial incentives and enhanced protections to whistleblowers, the commission incentivizes people to come forward with high quality information about serious violations of the law that we might not otherwise uncover. An award this size shows the importance that the commission places on incentivizing future whistleblowers,” says Aitan Goelman, director of the CFTC’s enforcement division, in a statement.

“The whistleblower program is working. My hope is that this multi-million-dollar award will encourage others to come forward with information that will assist the commission in protecting our markets,” added Christopher Ehrman, director of the CFTC’s Whistleblower Office.

In Canada, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is planning to introduce its own whistleblower program modelled on the SEC/CFTC approach, albeit with some differences in how awards are calculated and funded.