WASHINGTON—The Treasury and State Departments have 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 highlights banks’ suspicious activity reports under the Bank Secrecy Act; partnerships between major banks and anti-trafficking nonprofits and law enforcement; and banks’ use of Section 314(b) of the USA Patriot Act for information sharing, ABA Banking Journal said.
The report also noted 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, ABA Banking Journal reported.