A new report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) states that the United Kingdom should end its “long-held antipathy” towards paying whistleblowers and implement a whistleblower award program similar to those in the United States, the Financial Times reports. Doing so would allow UK authorities to better incentivize corporate insiders to come forward with information about financial misconduct, according to the report.

“The RUSI report is a historic breakthrough for whistleblower protection and anti-corruption,” says leading whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of the Washington D.C. firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “It recognizes the incredible value of laws such as Dodd-Frank and the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act.” Kohn also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblower Center.

“We will continue to work with our partners in the UK and around the world advocating for effective whistleblower laws modeled on RUSI’s findings,” adds Kohn, who has played a critical role in the drafting of U.S. whistleblower award laws and was consulted for the RUSI report.

In the U.S., whistleblower award programs offering monetary awards, anonymous reporting channels, and anti-retaliation protections to qualified whistleblowers have revolutionized white-collar crime enforcement, leading to billions of dollars in sanctions and drawing praise from leaders of the SEC, FinCEN, and DOJ. The RUSI report examined these programs and determined that a similar program in the UK could play a “pivotal role” in reducing white-collar offences.

Earlier this year, Kohn authored a research paper revisiting the arguments made against the implementation of whistleblower awards in the UK in a 2014 report by the Bank of England Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). Kohn finds that the Bank of England report’s arguments, which were made only four years after the creation of the U.S. SEC Whistleblower Program, are disproven by the growing body of empirical evidence about the effectiveness of whistleblower award programs

The RUSI report highlights that UK whistleblowers have been flocking to U.S. whistleblower programs in recent years. The SEC reports that it receives more whistleblower tips from the UK than from any other foreign country.

The RUSI report, which is set to be released on December 10, follows statements in support of whistleblower awards by Nick Ephgrave, the Director of the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). “I think we should pay whistleblowers,” Ephgrave said in February.

According to the Telegraph, Ephgrave is urging government ministers in the UK to set up a whistleblower award program modeled on the United States’. “We know that there are very effective programs elsewhere, the exemplar is in the United States,” he said.

Geoff Schweller also contributed to this article.