Employees of companies and authorities are often the first to note irregularities. By providing appropriate information, they can help to uncover, examine, investigate and put a stop to infringements of the law. Whistleblowers assume responsibility for society and therefore deserve protection from disadvantages to which they could be exposed as a result of their activities and which may therefore deter them from making reports.
Do you suspect that an individual or a company has violated supervisory provisions that BaFin is responsible for enforcing? If so, please contact BaFin’s Contact Point for Whistleblowers. In the event of acute danger to life or other threatening situations, please first dial the usual emergency phone numbers or contact your local police station.
Who is your contact partner – where can you obtain help?
When do I have reason to assume that it is necessary to forward information for the report I have submitted?
The protection is offered to you only to the extent that you may reasonably assume that there is a need to forward information for your report. The Whistleblower Protection Act does not cover the forwarding of information that is superfluous for your report.
When submitting reports to BaFin, the forwarding of information covered by professional or statutory confidentiality obligations is permissible in so far as the aforesaid forwarding was necessary for the report. Thus, you will not be required to compensate damages arising from such actions. Furthermore, as a general rule there is no need for you to fear criminal consequences as a result of forwarding information.
Would you like to report potential infringements of supervisory law and ensure that your anonymity is preserved under the provisions of the German Whistleblower Protection Act?
Besides supervising banks, financial services providers, payment institutions and e-money institutions, BaFin also supervises private insurance companies and pension funds. It is also responsible for supervising German asset managers and securities trading. BaFin also ensures that the companies it supervises comply with the applicable requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and is responsible for collective consumer protection in the financial services area. Please notify us of any potential infringements of supervisory law via the channels of BaFin´s Contact Point for whistleblowers. As a whistleblower, your identity is protected as part of the procedure for dealing with whistleblower cases.
Would you like to report other infringements?
Please contact the German government’s central reporting office at the Federal Office of Justice, if you wish to divulge information concerning
- German criminal law
- the German Act on Breaches of Administrative Regulations (Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz) if the breached regulation serves to protect body, life or health or the rights of employees or their representative bodies
- statements made by civil servants that constitute a violation of their duty to show loyalty to the constitution.
- product safety and conformity
- transport safety
- environmental protection
- radiation protection and nuclear safety
- food safety, feed safety, animal health and animal protection
- public health
- consumer protection
- protection of privacy and personal data, safety of network and information systems
- public procurements
- tax law of corporations and commercial partnerships
- protection of the financial interests of the European Union
- state aid
- other internal market regulations (regulations of the European Union on the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital)
Would you like to file a complaint about your bank or insurance company or would like to check up on a complaint that you have already filed?
If you have reason to believe that your bank or insurance company has not acted correctly, you can file a complaint with BaFin. You can submit your complaint to BaFin using our Online-form.
The possibilities to file a complaint are listed here.
Are you a market participant, expert or journalist with information for BaFin and unsure where to send it?
With its Market Contact Group (MCG), BaFin has established a special contact point for market experts for this very purpose. We invite you to share your information and specialist knowledge with us via our MCG contact channels.
Do you work for the media and would you like to send a press enquiry to BaFin?
Would you like to report potential infringements of antitrust law?
You should contact the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), if you wish to divulge information on
- violations of German and European cartel prohibitions (incl. vertical) (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), section 1 of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen – GWB),
- violations of the German and European prohibition of the abuse of market dominance, especially in the energy sector (Article 102 of the TFEU, sections 19, 20, 29 of the GWB)
- violations of the prohibition to implement a concentration (section 41 of the GWB)
- infringements of enforceable orders and obligations of competition authorities
- cases concerning the prohibition of boycott (i.e. requesting other undertakings or associations of undertakings to refuse to supply to or purchase from certain undertakings) (section 21 (1) of the GWB)
- cases in which undertakings exert influence on others to violate the antitrust law (section 21 (2) and (3) of the GWB)
- cases in which persons are threatened with economic harm if they request action to be taken by the competition authority (section 21 (4) of the GWB)
- cases in which an application contains incorrect or incomplete information in order to obtain recognition of a competition rule (section 24 (4) sentence 3 of the GWB)
- cases in which incorrect or incomplete information is contained in a notification of company concentrations (section 39 (3) sentence 5 of the GWB)
- • cases of misconduct on the part of major online platforms on digital markets (DMA - Digital Markets Act).
Is there something else you would like to enquire about or do you wish to make a general enquiry?
Have you been the victim of investment fraud committed by a company that is conducting banking business, insurance business, investment business, providing financial services, payment services or e-money business without the required authorisation, and you are not concerned about protecting your identity?
If this is the case, please contact our Directorate for the Integrity of the Financial System (IF), if@bafin.de.
Please refer to our data protection declaration.
