The firm consented to the SEC's order without admitting or denying the findings of the US regulator's investigation.

A US regulator has said BlackRock will pay a $340,000 fine to settle charges that it forced exiting employees to waive their ability to receive whistleblower awards.

More than 1,000 departing BlackRock employees signed separation agreements that stated they “waive any right to recovery of incentives for reporting of misconduct” in order to receive payouts from the firm, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's order.

The New York-based asset manager added the provision in October 2011 after the financial watchdog adopted its whistleblower program rules, and BlackRock continued using the wording in separation agreements until March 2016, the SEC said.

BlackRock consented to the SEC's order without admitting or denying the findings of the regulator's investigation.

“BlackRock took direct aim at our whistleblower program by using separation agreements that removed the financial incentives for reporting problems to the SEC,” said Anthony Kelly, co-chief of the SEC enforcement division’s asset management unit, adding: “Asset managers simply cannot place restrictions on the ability of whistleblowers to accept financial awards for providing valuable information to the SEC.”