Bank staff will be trained to spot trafficked women
Bankers Alliance, whose members include Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank, as well as anti-trafficking organisations and law enforcement bodies such as the National Crime Agency.
Monique Villa, the chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which set up the banking alliance behind the scheme, said: “Modern-day slavery is a growing business. The refugee crisis and the free movement of people across European borders have created a unique opportunity for traffickers to prey on vulnerable people.
“Financial institutions have a crucial role to play. They can provide crucial evidence needed to prosecute those responsible for this most shameful crime.”
Nick Lewis, the head of intelligence and investigations at Standard Chartered bank, said legitimate customers would not be “quizzed endlessly” but that the scheme could have a “significant effect” in helping trafficking victims. He said: “Bank staff are one of the few groups of people who come into contact with trafficking victims so our aim is to raise their awareness of signs that could indicate that a person is being controlled or exploited by someone.
“Human trafficking and modern slavery are international businesses generating billions in illicit profits each year with limited risk to the criminals perpetrating these crimes. Through greater collaboration and coordination across the financial sector, and by working with experts, we can strengthen our ability to target this criminal activity.”
The banks involved in the scheme will also analyse financial transactions to identify suspicious patterns that might indicate trafficking activity. Examples include cases in which a person repeatedly pays for flights but does not travel themselves, or pays multiple hotel bills on known trafficking routes.
One inspiration was a case in New York in which a prostitution ring was detected through repeated large payments at night at a hair salon which was being used by a trafficking gang as a front for selling sex. @martinbentham