Financial Systems

With the support of HHS’s Office on Trafficking In Persons, Polaris operated a trusted national lifeline for trafficking victims for almost two decades — a program built from a survivor’s vision and expanded through deep listening and action. That experience made one thing clear: stopping trafficking means going beyond crisis response.  Survivors asked us to … Continued

In 2007, Polaris helped bring a bold survivor idea to life: a national human trafficking hotline. With the support of HHS’s Office on Trafficking In Persons, we built it from the ground up and operated it for nearly two decades, connecting hundreds of thousands of people to safety, support, and justice. But from the very … Continued

Financial abuse is one of the primary ways traffickers enforce control over the people they exploit, and how they profit from that exploitation.

The National Survivor Study used the experience and expertise from survivors to create a detailed picture of the arc of trafficking.

Since the launch of the credit repair process for survivors of human trafficking, survivors have repeatedly reached out to Polaris to let us know that these new processes are not working as they are supposed to be.

Polaris sent a letter to House and Senate leadership urging them to include the ENABLERS Act in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. This legislation closes a loophole that allows some businesses to skirt anti-money laundering responsibilities.

Following the passage of the Debt Bondage Repair Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was tasked with creating a process for consumer reporting agencies to allow survivors of trafficking to block adverse information from their credit. This is what we know so far.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a U.S. government agency responsible for overseeing financial products and services for consumers, has published details of a new process for victims and survivors of trafficking to block adverse information from their credit reports that resulted from their trafficking experience. This fact sheet was created to provide survivors and advocates with additional information about this process.

The Debt Bondage Repair Act creates a process through which survivors can provide information and have adverse credit information resulting from their trafficking experience removed from their credit report.

A collaboration between researcher and survivor expert Megan Lundstrom, Polaris, PayPal and Capital One, provides anti-money laundering professionals with new insights to interpret the stories told by the bank records and credit card transactions of people experiencing trafficking.

The Financial Intelligence Unit will equip financial services with tools to better understand how traffickers use banks, credit cards, payment processors and the like.

Polaris's new Financial Intelligence Unit, which is made possible by financial and subject matter support from PayPal, is designed to leverage intelligence from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and other sources to interrupt trafficker cash flows and enable prosecutions for financial crimes including money laundering.