Modern Slavery Typologies for Financial Services Providers by The Mekong Club
May 29, 2025
Unmasking Modern Slavery: A Typology Guide for Financial Institutions
Modern slavery is a $150 billion criminal enterprise that thrives on the exploitation of vulnerable individuals and continues to infiltrate legitimate financial systems worldwide. The 2024 Typology Repository, developed by The Mekong Club in collaboration with financial crime experts, provides a vital update to the existing knowledge base on how modern slavery manifests within the financial services sector — and how institutions can disrupt it.
The Purpose and Scope
This comprehensive report aims to empower financial service providers with practical tools to identify, monitor, and report suspicious financial activity linked to modern slavery. Building on typologies from 2017 and 2019, the 2024 update introduces enhanced red flags, new case studies, and expands the scope to emerging industries such as scam labour camps, child sexual exploitation, and money mule operations.
It integrates behavioural, demographic, and transactional indicators — making it a hands-on resource for compliance teams, investigators, and relationship managers alike.
Key Features
Sector-Specific Typologies: Covers high-risk industries such as forced prostitution, construction, fishing, agriculture, domestic servitude, textile manufacturing, and more — each with real-world case studies and visual flows of people and money.
Red Flag Indicators: Presents categorized indicators (behavioural, demographic, transactional) that can be embedded into customer due diligence (CDD), KYC reviews, and transaction monitoring systems.
Practical Tools: Offers guiding questions and actions for financial professionals, alongside suggestions on how to incorporate modern slavery detection into daily banking operations and training programs.
Digital and Emerging Trends: Addresses the rise of digital wallets, cryptocurrencies, and the role of online platforms in facilitating trafficking, underscoring the need for adaptive surveillance and cross-border collaboration.
Recommendations for Financial Institutions
The report offers five pillars of action:
Mainstreaming modern slavery risk into risk assessment frameworks and due diligence processes.
Training staff across all levels to recognise indicators and escalate suspicions appropriately.
Enhancing Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR) with tailored categories and terminology.
Engaging with regulators to improve legislative frameworks and support victim-centric approaches.
Fostering information-sharing across the industry and encouraging employee involvement in anti-slavery efforts.
Why This Matters
With over 50 million people estimated to be in modern slavery today, financial institutions occupy a unique frontline position in detecting and disrupting this global crime. The typology repository is not just a technical manual—it is a call to action for the financial services industry to lead with vigilance, empathy, and a commitment to human rights.