With your information, you help to secure the integrity of the financial market!

Why should I submit a report?

Reports of violations of supervisory laws represent an important source of information concerning the supervisory activities of BaFin. Such reports can contain information from a secret or confidential situation that a whistleblower learns of at his job or in other circumstances and that he is bringing to the attention of BaFin.

In this way, whistleblowers can make valuable contributions to discovering the malpractices of individuals or entire companies within the financial sector and dampening or correcting the negative consequences of such malpractices.

What kind of reports are useful to BaFin?

Reports of potential or actual violations of laws, legal regulations, general dispositions and other regulations as well as regulations and directives of the European Union for which it is the task of the Supervisory Authority to ensure compliance or to punish violations by the companies and persons it supervises.

What is the process for submitting a report? How do I set up a postbox?

To submit an anonymous or personalised report, start by clicking the “Submit Report” button located at the top of our introduction page.

There are 4 steps to the report process:

1. First, you will be asked to read the information on the protection of your anonymity and to respond to a security query.
2. On the following page, you will be asked about the category of your report.
3. On the submission page, you can elaborate on your report in your own words and answer questions about the incident by simply selecting responses. You can type up to 5,000 characters into the free text field, which corresponds to a full A4 page. You may also submit a file of up to 5 MB to support your report. Please bear in mind that documents can contain information about the author. Following the submission of your report, you will receive a reference number to confirm that you have sent this report.
4. Please subsequently set up your own secured postbox. This postbox will allow you to access our feedback and reply to questions about your report.

If you already have a secured postbox, you can access it directly via the “Login” button. First, you will have to answer a security query.

As long as you do not enter any data from which conclusions about your person can be drawn, the BKMS^® System will protect your anonymity technically.

Please rest assured that we are interested only in the case you are reporting. Malpractices should be revealed and financial losses prevented.

How do I receive feedback and remain anonymous at the same time?

The overriding principle of the BKMS^® procedure in use is the protection of the whistleblower. The system's anonymity protection function is certified by an independent body.

When setting up your secured postbox, please select your own pseudonym/user name and password. Your report is kept anonymous through encryption and other specialised security measures. You will never be asked for personal information at any time during the reporting process. Do not submit any information that can be traced back to you. Please do not use a computer provided by your employer to submit your report.

Via the secured postbox, an examiner will give you feedback about the further processing of your information, or ask you questions if some details are still unclear - you remain anonymous throughout the dialogue. We are interested in reports to avoid damage, not in you as a whistleblower.

I am a customer of a bank or insurer and would like to submit a complaint or general enquiry to BaFin

To file a complaint, please refer to the consumer section of BaFin’s website: https://www.bafin.de/dok/14738826.

Please address any general enquiries to: poststelle@bafin.de.

BaFin is not authorised to provide legal advice.

BaFin does not use the whistleblowing system to answer any complaints or enquiries.

Privacy policy

“The collection and processing of data reported within the framework of the whistleblowing system takes place on the basis of Article 4d of the Act Establishing the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (FinDAG).

Access to the data is permitted exclusively to special employees of the whistleblowing office at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

For the purposes of examination, documentation and further investigation, the information can be forwarded to the competent departments within BaFin or to the ECB within the framework of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). For protection of the whistleblowers, this forwarding of information takes place in anonymised or pseudonymised form, insofar as possible.

The transmission of personal data to outside countries or to supranational or international agencies is fundamentally not provided for in this process.

If a process is initiated based on received information, the need for further retention/use of the data by the Authority will be evaluated no later than 6 months after conclusion of this process.

A processing or use of the data for purposes other than those specified in Article 4d FinDAG fundamentally does not take place.”