The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority’s external whistleblowing system

The Financial Supervisory Authority’s external whistleblowing system makes it possible for people with special ties to a financial company to report – via a special and anonymous channel – breaches or potential breaches of financial regulations by the financial entity, including banking institutions, payment institutions, insurance companies, pension companies, financial intermediaries, investment funds, alternative investment funds, etc.

In addition, any other persons may also report violations of financial legislation. The Financial Supervisory Authority’s external whistleblowing system also provides the ability to report on potential market abuse. Market abuse includes insider trading, improper disclosure of inside information and market manipulation under the Market Abuse Regulation.

You will receive a 16-digit code that you will need to access the report again. Report to the Financial Supervisory Authority's external whistleblowing system

Please note that you cannot use the scheme to report non-financial companies or citizens that you believe to have violated other laws such as tax and VAT laws or sell illegal products. Your report may be covered by the external whistleblowing system at the Data Protection Agency. You can read more about it here.

Here you can file a report through our whistleblower portal

Who, what and how?

Everyone has the opportunity to report to us a violation or potential violation of financial law or market abuse rules.

Many financial firms are required to have an internal whistleblowing system where you, as a person covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act, can report workplace matters. In some cases, it may be advantageous to report internally to the company because the breach can be handled internally in an effective manner and/or because you assess that there is no risk of reprisals.

Persons who have or have had work-related activities with the company reported on

If you have come into possession of information about circumstances at your current or previous workplace — or at a workplace where you have or have had similar work-related activities — you can report the matter to the Financial Supervisory Authority's external whistleblowing system.

The following groups of persons may report to the external whistleblowing system of the Financial Supervisory Authority:

  • Workers.
  • Self-employed persons, such as self-employed persons, who cooperate with the workplace about which the whistleblowing report is submitted.
  • Shareholders and members of the executive board, board of directors, supervisory board or equivalent management body of a company.
  • Volunteers.
  • Paid or unpaid interns.
  • Persons who work under the supervision and management of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. This group of persons includes employees of an enterprise with which a workplace has entered into a contractual relationship. The group of persons also includes employees of a company which supplies or subcontracts goods or services to a workplace.
  • Former employees.
  • Job applicants who report information on breaches to which they have gained access during the recruitment process or other pre-contractual negotiations. This group of persons includes both persons who are hired at a later date by the workplace and persons who do not obtain employment.

If you belong to the above-mentioned groups and have come into possession of the information in connection with work-related activities, you are protected by the Whistleblower Act. You can read more about your protection as a whistleblower.

Others who wish to report to the Financial Supervisory Authority

Everyone has the opportunity to report to the Financial Supervisory Authority a violation or potential violation of financial law or market abuse rules.

However, you should be aware that you do not have the same protection as someone who has or has had work-related activities with companies

 

The Financial Supervisory Authority deals with whistleblower reports of breaches or potential breaches of financial regulation and market abuse rules.

The Financial Supervisory Authority’s external whistleblowing system deals with whistleblower reports of breaches or potential breaches of financial regulation and market abuse rules.

Via the whistleblowing system, you can report on matters relating to Danish financial companies, including reports of suspected fraud in relation to customers, breaches of financial legislation and companies operating without authorisation from the Financial Supervisory Authority.

The Financial Supervisory Authority’s whistleblowing system also accepts reports of potential breaches of market abuse rules. This may include, for example, reports of suspected improper disclosure of inside information, insider trading or market manipulation/price manipulation in financial instruments, i.e. stocks, bonds, investment certificates, derivatives, etc.

As an external whistleblower, there are several ways you can get in touch with the Financial Supervisory Authority.

Written notification

You can file a report through our whistleblower portal.

Before filing a report, we recommend that you read the guide to the portal and our information on the page before using the portal.

Link to the portal

Report by phone

You have the option of submitting a whistleblowing report by telephone by contacting the Financial Supervisory Authority's reception on +45 33 55 82 82 between 9-16 from Monday to Thursday or between 9-15 on Fridays. You will then be forwarded to an employee who can receive your report. Conversations are not recorded.

Personal meeting

If you wish to report market abuse or information that you have come into your possession in connection with work-related activities with a company, you have the option of contacting the Financial Supervisory Authority in order to have a meeting in person. You can arrange a meeting by calling reception on 33 55 82 82 between 9-16 from Monday to Thursday or from 9-15 on Fridays.

You can also send a letter to our physical address or email. Please note that this is not secure communication.

E-mail: finanstilsynet@ftnet.dk

Address:

Finanstilsynet

Strandgade 29

1401 København K

The Financial Supervisory Authority's reporting portal allows you to communicate anonymously in two ways with the employees of the Financial Supervisory Authority who process external whistleblower contacts. On this page, you can read how our reporting portal works.

Once you have submitted your report through the whistleblower portal, you will receive confirmation of receipt on screen.

A 16-digit key code is indicated in the proof of receipt.

With this code, you can access your report again and communicate with the employees of the external whistleblowing system of the Financial Supervisory Authority.

In addition to the information you have submitted to us, we may need to ask you additional questions in order to process your report in the best possible way.

If you have not provided any contact information, the Financial Supervisory Authority's communication with you about your report – such as requesting additional information or informing about the handling of the case – will take place via the whistleblower portal. You can also add additional information to your report in the portal yourself. Employees of the whistleblowing system can see if you have read messages sent to you in the portal.

If you have not disclosed your identity or provided contact information, the Financial Supervisory Authority can only communicate with you via the whistleblower portal. It is therefore important that you regularly access your report in the whistleblower portal with the 16-digit key code and track the progress of the case and answer any questions we may have.

The key code must be stored securely since it cannot be recovered for security reasons. If you lose the code, you also lose the ability to access your report afterwards. This means that if you lose your code, you will have to file the report again.

Once your report has been fully processed, your report and any other information about the report will be deleted from the whistleblower portal. The information will still appear in the Financial Supervisory Authority's electronic case and document management system.

 

Please notice

When you submit a report to the Financial Supervisory Authority, we protect your identity. You can read more about your protection here.

Protection of persons covered by the Whistleblowers Act

When are you protected?

If you are covered by one of the groups of persons in the Whistleblowers Act and have or have had work-related activities with the company you report about, you are in principle protected as a whistleblower.

However, for you to be protected as a whistleblower, you must be acting in the belief that the information in your report is accurate. In other words, you must behave in “good faith” about the accuracy of the information. Therefore, you will not be protected as a whistleblower if, for example, you intentionally report incorrect information to the whistleblowing system. You may be punished with a fine if you knowingly report incorrect information, and you may also be punished under other legislation — such as the Criminal Code — if you knowingly report incorrect information.

How are you protected?

As a whisteblower, you will not be liable for obtaining the information you report, unless the manner in which you have acquired the information is criminal. This will be the case, for example, if you have obtained the information via burglary, coercion, threats, hacking, illegal recording, interception of others or the like. Therefore, you may not, for example, gain access to information by breaking into premises or the like, as burglary itself is a criminal offence.

As a whistleblower who in good faith reports information to a whistleblower system, you will not be liable for breaching a statutory duty of confidentiality in relation to the information that you report if you reasonably believed that the reporting revealed a matter, covered under “What can you file a whistleblowing report on?”.

As a whistleblower, you are protected from reprisal – even if said reprisals are only threatened or attempted – if you make a report to an internal or external whistleblowing system. No effort may be made to hinder or prevent you from making a report. This means that your workplace may not penalise you in any way if you make a report in good faith concerning the accuracy of the information.

If your workplace nevertheless exposes you to reprisals in connection with a report, you are entitled to compensation for the consequences of the retaliation if you can prove that your report was lawfully submitted. It is then incumbent on the person who subjected you to reprisals to prove that the report was not related to the reprisals.

The Financial Supervisory Authority's external whistleblowing system cannot help you with questions about compensation – this must be decided by the courts 

Protection of your identity and other information that reveals your identity

Information in your report about your identity and other information that may lead to your identity being inferred will not, as a rule, be disclosed by the Financial Supervisory Authority without your consent. However, there may be situations where it is necessary to forward the information to, for example, the police, the Data Protection Authority or other public authorities in order to counteract and investigate the reported violation. The confidentiality obligations of the Financial Supervisory Authority's employees regarding the information contained in your report will also apply to the employees of other authorities to whom the information is forwarded.

In cases where a report leads to the initiation of legal proceedings, it will probably no longer be possible to keep your identity secret because the persons against whom legal proceedings are brought are entitled to legal defence under the rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct.

As a rule, you will be informed in advance of the Financial Supervisory Authority’s passing on information about your identity and other information that may lead to your identity being inferred.

Access

If you are covered by one of the groups of persons in the Act on Whistleblowers and have or have had work-related activities with the company you report about, your report is exempt from the right of access under the Public Access Act.

If, on the basis of a whistleblower report, the Financial Supervisory Authority opens a supervisory case, those affected by reporting (e.g. the company being reported on) will become a party to the supervisory proceedings. Parties in a case with the Financial Supervisory Authority have the right to access the case files under the Administrative Procedures Act, but information about your identity and information that could lead to your identity being inferred will not be disclosed to those affected by the report.

Protection of other persons who wish to report to the Financial Supervisory Authority

Other persons wishing to report infringements or potential infringements in the financial field will be protected by the Financial Supervisory Authority's duty of professional secrecy under the Financial Activities Act and the Capital Markets Act.

Employees of the Financial Supervisory Authority shall not disclose information about a person who has reported a company or person to the Financial Supervisory Authority for infringements or potential infringements, for which the Financial Supervisory Authority has supervisory duties.

In some cases, the Financial Supervisory Authority may disclose information to other public authorities, including the prosecutor's office and the police, if deemed relevant. If the information is disclosed to another authority, that authority will also be subject to the obligation of professional secrecy applicable to employees of the Financial Supervisory Authority.

Therefore, the information must not be disclosed by the authority that received it, but the authority is allowed to use the information for the purpose of handling the case. Thus, for example, the prosecution may choose to summon the whistleblower as a witness if the identity of the whistleblower is known.

Access to documents

The Financial Supervisory Authority may not disclose personal data about a person who, using their own name, has reported the company to the Financial Supervisory Authority, relating to a violation, or a potential violation, of the rules issued in the financial field.

This information is therefore not subject to access under the rules of the Administrative Offices Act or the Public Access Act.

 

The Financial Supervisory Authority’s external whistleblowing system will conduct an initial assessment of your report in order to determine whether the report is covered by financial legislation or relates to market abuse rules.

If this is the case, the external whistleblowing system will conduct a further investigation on the basis of the information contained in your report. Such an investigation may, for example, result in the Financial Supervisory Authority initiating independent investigations of the individual company or larger investigation cases involving several companies. However, the Financial Supervisory Authority is subject to special rules on professional secrecy under the Financial Activities Act. This means that the Financial Supervisory Authority is often unable to disclose whether the reports lead to further investigation. However, via the whistleblower portal, we will provide you with the information that we can without violating our duty of confidentiality.

If the external whistleblowing system of the Financial Supervisory Authority discloses information from your report, you will generally be notified prior to the disclosure. Information about your identity – or other information from which information can directly or indirectly be inferred about your identity – will generally only be disclosed with your express consent. However, the external whistleblowing system at the Financial Supervisory Authority may disclose such information about your identity, etc without your consent to other public authorities if it is deemed necessary to prevent violations of the law or to ensure the affected persons' right to a defence.

Who will process my report?

A limited staff group within the Financial Supervisory Authority has the task of receiving and following up on whistleblower reports, and the employees who process alerts are, inter alia, authorised to work with reports and are subject to a special duty of confidentiality with regard to information contained therein.

When will I be notified of what happens to my report?

Once you have filed a report via the whistleblower portal, you will receive confirmation of receipt on your screen stating that your report has been sent. This will include a 16-digit code that you will need to be able to log in to the portal again. This means that it is important for you to save the code.

Within seven days, you will receive a letter from the Financial Supervisory Authority on the portal confirming receipt of your report.

If you belong to the group of people protected by the Whistleblowers Protection Act (link to “Who can file a whistleblowing report?”), you will generally receive feedback on your report within three months of confirmation of your report having been received. Feedback may consist, for example, of information on actions, which have been planned or taken for the purpose of following up on your report.

This period may be extended for up to six months if, due to the specific circumstances of the case, a longer investigation is required. In this case, you will be informed of such within three months of the whistleblowing system having received your report.

Most of the Financial Supervisory Authority’s supervision is subject to a special duty of confidentiality, which means that we are often unable to disclose whether the reports lead to further investigation. However, we will provide you with the information that we can without violating our duty of confidentiality.

You will also be informed when the Financial Supervisory Authority closes or dismisses the case with your report, if the authority's duty of confidentiality permits such.

If you are not included in the group of persons covered by the Act on the protection of whistleblowers, you will receive a letter – within seven days of sending the report – stating that the Financial Supervisory Authority has received your contact. As a rule, the Financial Supervisory Authority's duty of confidentiality will mean that we will not be able to provide you with any further information about our processing of the report. If the Financial Supervisory Authority needs to elaborate on your report or has further questions, we would like to be able to contact you via the whistleblower portal or the contact information you provide in the report, so that we can investigate the situation as best as possible.

Here you can see other external whistleblowing systems covered by the Whistleblower Act.

Danish Data Protection Agency

The Danish Data Protection Agency has established a general external whistleblowing system. Via their whistleblowing system, you can report various serious offences and other serious matters (not just GDPR and data protection cases) that you learned of in the course of your duties.

You can report to the Danish Data Protection Authority via this link: Whistleblowing system in the Danish Data Protection Agency

Danish Business Authority

The Danish Business Authority has established a whistleblowing system in the field of auditors. Here, reports of breaches or potential breaches of auditing legislation by an auditor, an audit firm, an undertaking of public interest or a member of the senior management body or audit committee of an undertaking of public interest may be made anonymously. Reports can be submitted in cases where these individuals may have acted in violation of the duties prescribed by auditing legislation.

Reports can be submitted via this link: Whistleblowing system in the field of auditors

In addition, a COVID-19 whistleblowing has been set up at the Danish Business Authority to receive reports of fraud related to the compensation scheme and the activity pool.

Reports can be submitted via this link

Danish Working Environment Authority

Reports of potential violations of the safety and health regulations on offshore installations must be submitted to the Danish Working Environment Authority.

Reports can be submitted via this link: Whistleblower – report safety and health issues offshore

Danish Environmental Protection Agency

Reports of potential violations of environmental regulations or other environmental problems at offshore installations must be submitted to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Reports can be submitted via this link: Oil and gas production in the North Sea – overview of environmental efforts.

Ministry of Justice

Reporting of matters in the Security and Intelligence Service (PET) of the Danish Police must be submitted to the Ministry of Justice.

Reports can be submitted via this link: PET’s whistleblowing system

Ministry of Defence

Reporting of matters in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (FE) must be submitted to the Ministry of Defence.

Reports can be submitted via this link: FE’s whistleblowing system

 

A number of EU financial rules require individuals to report infringements or potential breaches of EU law. The Financial Supervisory Authority has therefore set up an external whistleblowing system to allow such breaches to be reported.

The Financial Supervisory Authority's whistleblowing system allows anyone to report breaches or potential breaches of financial law.

On 24 June 2021, the Danish Parliament adopted Law no. 1436 on the protection of whistleblowers (the Whistleblowers Act).

The Act transposes EU Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons reporting breaches of EU law into Danish law.

The purpose of the Act is to guarantee better protection for whistleblowers by establishing secure channels in both the public and private sectors for reporting violations. The law came into force on 17 December 2021. 

The Act introduces a comprehensive framework for the protection of whistleblowers in Danish law, by inter alia imposing on public authorities and a large number of private companies and organisations the obligation to establish internal whistleblowing systems.

In addition to the internal whistleblowing systems, it follows from the Act that an external whistleblowing system must also be established within the Data Protection Authority and that external whistleblowing systems established pursuant to sectoral EU legislation must be maintained and comply with the law.

Individuals who are whistleblowers under the Whistleblower Act are restricted to a smaller group of people than those who can report to the Financial Supervisory Authority. Therefore, not everyone who reports to the Financial Supervisory Authority will enjoy the protection of whistleblowers under the law. You can read more about what people are covered under the Whistleblower Act in Who can file a whistleblowing report? and you can read more about the protection available to you in Your protection as a whistleblower.