The reporting of corporate fraud continues to reach record levels.

According to the latest quarterly Corporate Fraud Index released this week by the Network and BDO Consulting, fraud-related reports—including incidents of corruption, misuse of assets, conflicts of interest, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and UK Bribery Act violations by employees—rose last quarter to 22.9 percent of all compliance reporting activity, its new highest peak since the index was created in 2005.

The latest data is based on analysis of more than 1,400 organizations worldwide, including nearly half of the Fortune 500.

The increase marks the fifth consecutive quarter of record-high fraud reporting. The last highest record was observed in the second quarter in 2011 at 21.7 percent. Additionally, the percentage point increase of 5.4 percent from the first quarter 2012 represents the largest quarter-to-quarter increase since the first quarter of 2009.

The second quarter 2012 Corporate Fraud Index also includes the Fraud Related Incidents (FRI) statistic, which measures the volume of fraud-related calls. The total number of those reports also jumped from 7,054 incident reports in the second quarter of 2011 to 7,879 fraud incidents reported in the same period in 2012, an increase of more than 11 percent.

Luis Ramos, CEO of the Network, links the record level of fraud reporting to the growing willingness by employees to report issues more readily.  “While the bad news is that fraud is still occurring, the good news is that the workforce is becoming more informed about what constitutes misconduct and the actions they can take to make their organization aware of the issues,” he says. “From these statistics, it's evident that more and more employees are getting involved on a daily basis to speak up when they see fraud occurring.”

“Fraud takes the biggest toll on organizations that are complacent about their anti-fraud measures,” says Glenn Pomerantz, a partner with BDO Consulting. “However, when organizations apply proactive measures, such as a trusted hotline program, risk assessments and continuous control monitoring, the impact from fraud can be greatly diminished.”