Slavery is illegal at all times and in all places. Despite this, there are currently an estimated 40.3 million people in modern slavery or victims of human trafficking. The financial sector has a unique role to play in investing in and fostering business practices that help to end modern slavery and human trafficking. Finance is a lever by which the entire global economy can be moved.

In response to this, the Liechtenstein Initiative Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking was established in September 2018. Its task was to consider how the financial sector can accelerate its engagement in addressing and preventing modern slavery and human trafficking.

Its blueprint sets out 5 goals for financial sector actors to work toward.  Each goal is supported by the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) Implementation Toolkit.

The goals are summarised below:

Goal 1: Compliance with laws against modern slavery and human trafficking.

• There is inadequate enforcement of norms in international law against modern slavery. The financial sector can strengthen financial investigations, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) sanctions regimes, develop transaction analysis tools, and use all public regulatory levers to address this.

Goal 2: Knowing and showing modern slavery and human trafficking risks.

• Action is required at both the enterprise and market levels to improve market information and transparency. The financial sector can collaborate on due diligence, foster digital and data innovation, work with other stakeholders for harmonisation of disclosure regimes, influence the inclusion of modern slavery risks in emerging environment social governance (ESG) ratings, as well as collaborate on value-chain mapping and shadow pricing models.

Goal 3: Using leverage creatively to mitigate and address modern slavery and human trafficking risks.

• Finance is a lever that can influence global business practices to change outcomes. The financial sector can utilise traditional commercial leverage, broader business leverage, work with business and non-commercial partners, engage in multi-stakeholder cooperation, and financial platform leverage in business operating systems.

Goal 4: Providing and enabling effective remedy for modern slavery and human trafficking harms.

• Victims of modern slavery often lack access to effective remedial mechanisms. The financial sector can participate in the FAST Survivor Inclusion Initiative, cooperate with OECD National Contact Points and law enforcement, pre-position remedial arrangements, develop new insurance lines, and investigate modalities to fund compensation payments to victims and survivors.

Goal 5: Investment in innovation for prevention.

• Large numbers of people and micro, small and medium enterprises lack sufficient access to safe, reliable, coercion-free credit and financing. Financial sector actors can invest in digital finance for prevention of modern slavery, collaborate with other stakeholders to determine both the cost of ending modern slavery and the return on investment for doing so, promote social finance, examine the possibility of issuing anti-slavery bonds, and collaborate for investment in e-finance infrastructure for vulnerable populations.

The blueprint and implementation toolkit provide the financial sector with a flexible framework with which to proactively accelerate action to end modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030, in line with Target 8.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

1. Failure to effectively price in the true social and economic costs of modern slavery leads to the inefficient allocation of capital, which has contributed to the failure of global labour markets to provide decent work and support safe and dignified employment opportunities for all. As decent labour conditions are key to the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing modern slavery and human trafficking should, therefore, be at the heart of sustainable finance.
2. Financial sector actors have unparalleled influence over global business and a unique role to play in investing in and fostering business practices that help end modern slavery and human trafficking. Under prevailing standards set out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, financial sector actors have roles and responsibilities for responding to these issues.
3. Modern slavery and human trafficking pose significant reputational risks to organisations who are seen to facilitate it in some way. However, financial sector actors are connected to modern slavery in different ways, such as through their own operations, or their business relationships. For this reason, what effective management and mitigation looks like is dependent on which type of connection a financial sector actor has to those risks.
4. Global finance as a system should be aligned with sustainable development. But while efforts by individual actors help, they may not translate to effective pricing signals or otherwise influence market behaviour at scale. Cooperation between financial sector actors, governments, and regulatory authorities, is a necessary part of helping end modern slavery in line with the broadly accepted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
5. Financial sector actors wanting to engage in ethical business practice may seek to both minimise the harm associated with modern slavery, and redeploy capital towards sustainable solutions. Financial solutions focused on discharging social mandates can both improve resilience to modern slavery risks and unlock significant financial potential in emerging markets. Of particular importance is the need for solutions which support access to safe and fair banking and credit in underserved markets which are seen to offer a poor risk: return ratio for investors.
6. Mobilising finance against modern slavery and human trafficking requires systems thinking, effective prioritisation, and the strategic use of tools and initiatives. To assist with this process of implementation, the Financial Sector Commission has created an Implementation Toolkit, consisting of the following tools:
7. Connection Diagnostic and Risk Mapping Tool-
   An interactive self-diagnostic tool that helps financial sector actors begin to identify their connections to modern slavery and human trafficking and consider how they might respond to those issues.
8. Financial Investigations Tool-
   Guidance on good practice in conducting financial investigations into modern slavery and human trafficking, produced by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) working with the Commission.
9. Leverage Practice Matrix-
   Building on work by the non-profit organisation Shift, the matrix offers relevant examples of six different types of leverage to show what creative use of leverage may look like in the financial sector.
10. Financial Access Project – Survivor Inclusion Initiative
    An initiative to help survivors find safe and reliable access to basic financial products and services.
11. Financial Access Project – Vulnerable Populations Initiative
    Preventing modern slavery and human trafficking by growing access to financial products and services for highly vulnerable populations.