The report’s recommendations cover a number of areas, including culture and strategy, monitoring and reporting, investor engagement, policy formation and employee training, and philanthropy.  

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

A new report from the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner draws attention to how the financial services industry can help address the issue of modern slavery. The report, “Preventing Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking: An Agenda for Action across the Financial Services Sector” (the Report), aims to sound “a call to action for the industry”. The Report, which was released on 18 January 2021, is the result of a research and outreach project led by Themis in partnership with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s Office and TRIBE Freedom Foundation.

As the Report notes, in relation to financial services, modern slavery is less overt and usually refers to employment of low skilled contract workers such as cleaning or catering workers.