While there have recently been successful prosecutions involving whistle-blowers at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and UBS, these were securities or tax-law violations, and the whistle-blowers were participating in programs of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Internal Revenue Service.

Without robust whistle-blower programs, bank regulators are like beat cops who don’t have a working 911 system. Given the financial constraints that regulators operate under and the vast market they oversee, they need help to detect, investigate and prosecute violations of our banking system. Regulators and law enforcement officials need real-time information about what is occurring inside these vast institutions. The importance of whistle-blowers cannot be overstated.

Had adequate incentives and protections for whistle-blowers been in place at the Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the fraud at Wells Fargo might have been stopped before it spun out of control. And those who were fired for speaking up would have had someplace to go.

A perfect model is the S.E.C. Whistle-blower Program, which was established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and which has rightly been heralded as a success. This innovative program offers eligible whistle-blowers significant employment protections, monetary awards and the ability to report anonymously. In just five years, the S.E.C. has paid out over $111 million in whistle-blowers awards.

What’s more, many of those whistle-blowers have remained anonymous, which has given confidence to others who want to come forward without risking their jobs and careers. The program also ensures that high-quality tips get the attention they deserve, something that didn’t happen in the Bernie Madoff case, for example.