Mr Wheatley, who is managing director of the conduct businesss unit, was attending the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards with FSA chairman Lord Turner today.
The pair were questioned on how they felt they could improve the culture of banking standards within the financial services industry.
Mr Wheatley said whistleblowing was a "core part" of the FSA's maintenance of effective financial markets and said the FSA received around 4,000 whistleblowers every year with about one in eight of these providing valuable information.
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When asked by commission member Lord Lawson if he had studied the incentives used by regulators in the USA Mr Wheatley said he was "unconvinced" it would lead to a better system in the UK as most whistleblowing was carried out for moral and ethical reasons rather than financial.
He said: "Whistleblowers in the UK are 'doing the right thing' with a moral incentive whereas in the US, they have financial incentives and there are pros and cons of both. I'm unconvinced it will lead to a better structure, we have a structure already but we just don't pay people."
Under the Dodd Frank Act, in America whistleblowers are rewarded with significant financial incentives of the money recovered, strict confidentiality provisions and protected from wrongful dismissal.
Mr Wheatley said there was a case in America at the moment in the advanced stages which involved a whistleblower and he said he felt he needed more time to assess the value of that case.

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