U.S. derivatives regulators report that about 40% of their enforcement actions now involve tips from whistleblowers — a share that’s only expected to increase.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced its latest whistleblower award, which will see an anonymous tipster collect approximately US$7 million for reporting alleged misconduct that prompted a CFTC investigation, resulting in enforcement action.

The CFTC doesn’t reveal the details of these cases in order to protect the identity of whistleblowers. But, in this case, it noted that the tip it received wasn’t entirely correct — but it still led to successful enforcement and a whistleblower payout.

“This award shows that, in some cases, whistleblowers may provide information about wrongdoing that is not completely accurate, but if any information they provide leads us to open an investigation resulting in a successful enforcement action, we will reward them accordingly,” said Christopher Ehrman, director of the CFTC Whistleblower Office.

With this latest award, the CFTC has now paid out more than US$90 million since establishing its whistleblower program.

These cases have, in turn, generated more than US$730 million in enforcement sanctions.

“Today’s award demonstrates how integral whistleblowers have become to our enforcement efforts,” said CFTC director of enforcement, James McDonald.

“Forty percent of our investigations now involve whistleblowers. We expect that number to increase as the CFTC continues to expand its whistleblower program,” he added.