The Treasury and State Departments today issued a report analyzing efforts to prevent human trafficking and highlighting the role that banks and other financial institutions play in these efforts. “Financial institutions play a critical role in identifying transactions associated with human trafficking at the transactional or teller level,” the report said.
Specifically, the report highlighted banks’ suspicious activity reports under the Bank Secrecy Act; partnerships between major banks and anti-trafficking nonprofits and law enforcement; banks’ use of Section 314(b) of the USA Patriot Act for information sharing. The report also noted that banks have used resources from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Financial Action Task Force and the Thomson Reuters Foundation as part of their anti-trafficking efforts.
The report also made recommendations to strengthen anti-money laundering efforts related to human trafficking, including best practices; changes to internal policies, procedures and controls; and training improvements.