Sean McKessy, Chair of the Office of the Whistleblow

Website: www.sec.gov/whistleblower

Why it exists: The office of the whistleblower was created to help beef up financial compliance and assist the SEC in investigating and prosecuting compliance violations. FierceComplianceIT recently provided a distilled "must-know" guide explaining the Office of the Whistleblower and its effects on companies, employees and financial audit staff.

Developments in 2011: Sean McKessy, formally Securities Counsel in the SEC Division of Enforcement, rejoined the SEC in February 2011 as head of the Office of the Whistleblower. The SEC issued Final Rules on 25 May 2011, officially enacting the new agency. The Final Rules became effective on 12 August 2011 and whistleblowers can now submit a tip online.

In a speech regarding the Final Rules, SEC chairman Mary L. Schapiro said that, "Already the whistleblower program provision of the Dodd-Frank Act is having an impact...the quality of the tips we have received has been better since Section 922 became law. And we expect this trend to continue."

For more:
- see the Final Rules on the Office of the Whistleblower