NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Banks and credit cardcompanies can play a crucial role in shutting down humantraffickers by flagging the electronic fingerprints they leavebehind, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
An estimated 14,000 to 17,000 people are smuggled into theUnited States each year and forced to work as domestic servants,laborers or in the sex trade, according to estimates from theDA's office.
"All sorts of electronic and digital fingerprints are leftwhen you have a crime committed or a business enterprise isbeing run," said Vance. "Financial institutions are in a uniqueposition to spot red flags in banking activity and report themto law enforcement."
Vance spoke on Thursday at a roundtable that broughttogether major financial institutions and law enforcementagencies to discuss closer cooperation in the fight againsthuman trafficking, a global business worth $32 billion a year,according to the U.S. State Department.
The International Labor Organisation estimates almost 21million people worldwide are victims of slavery or forced labor.Almost half are thought to be trafficked, either across bordersor within their own countries
The roundtable, held in New York, was part of a newinitiative joined by JP Morgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Bankof America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, Toronto Dominion Bank,Barclays, Western Union and American Express to fighttrafficking.
The DA's office and the Thomson Reuters Foundation arecoordinating the efforts of a working group set up by the banks,which will meet in early July.
For more details: www.trust.org
U.S. and European financial institutions already have aregulatory duty to report suspected illegal activity, but therehave been few efforts to leverage methods used to spot moneylaundering, extremist violence and other crimes to hone in onhuman trafficking.
The first bank to do so was JP Morgan Chase, which onThursday offered to share with the other financial institutionsin the working group its model for monitoring transactions andpartnering with law enforcement.