Kikelomo Lawal, EVP and Chief Legal Officer at CIBC, joins The Hon. Lisa Raitt to discuss the impacts of human trafficking in Canada and the lasting consequences facing survivors.
Lisa Raitt
Thank you for tuning in to The Raitt Stuff. I'm your host Lisa Raitt and in this podcast I'm going to share insights on current hot topics in the areas of public policy, politics and business, with some guests along the way. Welcome back to The Raitt Stuff. Today we're going to be taking a look at a big societal problem that CIBC is aware of and looking at. And I'm so grateful to have with me Kikelomo Lawal, who is the EVP and Chief Legal Officer at CIBC and Kikelomo is the executive sponsor of a CIBC Initiative on anti-human trafficking. And as many of you may be aware, February 22nd is Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada. We can have a conversation about what is human trafficking and the things that financial institutions can do.
Lisa Raitt
Kikelomo, thank you so much for joining me here today.
Kikelomo Lawal
Thank you so much for having me, Lisa.
Lisa Raitt
So can you give us an idea before we dive into it, exactly what is human trafficking?
Kikelomo Lawal
Happy to, Lisa. So human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation and hiring of people through forced deception or fraud with the aim of exploiting them for profit. So we're talking about impacts that are lasting. They are physical, they are mental, they're emotional, they're financial. And we are focused here today on the financial, but certainly lots of people who are impacted in multiple ways.
Lisa Raitt
Yeah. And you know what? People think that this is something that only happens in the movies, but it's not, is it? It does happen around us.
Kikelomo Lawal
It absolutely happens around us. And people tend to think of it as something that happens far away from home. It doesn't. In 2020 [SK3][BA4], there were is a 44% increase in human trafficking incidents from the previous year. Globally, there are estimated 27.6 million victims of human trafficking.
Lisa Raitt
That's unbelievable. And of course, it's certain communities that are impacted disproportionately for sure.
Kikelomo Lawal
95% of human trafficking victims are girls and women, and most of the victims are below the age of 35. That's about 89% of those who've been victimized.
Lisa Raitt
And I bet hard for them to come forward.
Kikelomo Lawal
Indeed, it's often unreported, victims are rarely able to come forward and banks like CIBC can play a huge role in addressing the problem, tackling the issue and will expand on this as we talk through today.
Lisa Raitt
Yeah, And so, you know, the first question, of course, people will say why is CIBC involved, a financial institution? Why are we involved in the fight against human trafficking?
Kikelomo Lawal
I appreciate the question. I think it's twofold. Number one, it's the right thing to do for victims and for survivors. Number two, we are interrupting financial crime traffickers are leveraging the financial system to take out debt and credit in their victims’ names and launder their proceeds. We are interrupting that stream. They're playing an important part in making sure that we work with our upstream partners to prevent this crime from occurring. This work also aligns with CBC's focus on creating access to opportunities. We are committed to projects that prioritize removing of barriers to access to financial services, and we're looking to strengthen the communities that we serve.
Lisa Raitt
So it's not just about stopping the crime, it's about supporting victims too, when we find them.
Kikelomo Lawal
Absolutely.
Lisa Raitt
I mean, the numbers that you gave earlier kind of stagger me. It must have a big impact on the economy and on the financial industry.
Kikelomo Lawal
It does. Human trafficking generates $150 billion per year for criminals in second only to drug trafficking is the most profitable form of transnational crime.
Lisa Raitt
And the victims, you said that they take their money and they take their identity in order to take out debt and stuff. How does that work?
Kikelomo Lawal
Well, so victims, number one, are expected to produce a certain amount of income for their traffickers. That can be anywhere from $500 to $1000 per day. We also look at what's being asked of the victims or what's being taken from the victims, I should say, in terms of their identities, their financial identities.
Lisa Raitt
And you must see in the finance industry people being threatened in order to provide taking out debt in their names.
Kikelomo Lawal
That's right. So in addition to identity theft, which is when the trafficker commits fraud by making unauthorized charges, we also have coerced debt, which is where by use of threats and force victims are compelled to take out debt in service of their traffickers.
Lisa Raitt
And you think about it. I mean, somebody becomes a victim of human trafficking and then they are able to escape the trafficking. The trouble doesn't end there. I mean, what happens to their finances once they get away?
Kikelomo Lawal
We've seen debt amounts that can range to several hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. And these are lasting effects that go way beyond once someone is able to escape that environment.
Lisa Raitt
And it has a knock on effect because as everyone knows, in order to do anything in society, you really do have to have some kind of credit record.
Kikelomo Lawal
That's right. It's anything from getting a loan to getting credit to getting housing. These are all tied to one's financial identity.
Lisa Raitt
And they're so young, like you mentioned. This is the start of a person's life.
Kikelomo Lawal
It is. It is for a lot of them, it will hinder them from securing student loans in order to improve their financial condition than their personal growth. It might affect obtaining a cell phone, for goodness sake, and even securing a job. It really impacts people, especially those who are at the early stages of establishing themselves as part of society.
Lisa Raitt
So true. So what are you doing here at CIBC to help with respect to these negative impacts on victims?
Kikelomo Lawal
Well,we're working with regulators and a few of our peer banks to join forces to combat human trafficking. For example, we develop a list of indicators to help businesses identify financial transactions and patterns of activities that are related to human trafficking. These are things that are indicative often of money laundering. We're really proud of the work that is underway at CIBC to tackle this issue because we're also supporting survivors.
Kikelomo Lawal
We're doing things like helping them open new accounts, working with credit bureaus to restore credit and credit history. And we're also doing training, training for our frontline teams so that they can detect the signs of human trafficking.
Kikelomo Lawal
How it intersects with the financial services industry and how to report it through the proper channels. Education and awareness is a big component there.
Lisa Raitt
I bet. And if we want to make that real change, we all have to work together.
Kikelomo Lawal
Absolutely. And we can all do our part by way of learning and being educated on this topic and spreading awareness. The key to ending stigma is making it easier for victims and survivors to come forward. And I think we can all do our part in that regard.
Lisa Raitt
Well, Kikelomo, I want to say I'm so proud to be part of CIBC doing such an important work, because I think it's really important for society, and I'm really happy that you're able to join me here today to talk about it.
Kikelomo Lawal
Well, thank you kindly, Lisa. I'm really glad for this platform. The Raitt Stuff is the way to get information out. I'm glad to promote awareness on this topic. Thank you so much.
Lisa Raitt
You're welcome. And just for those who may be listening in, if you or someone you know is in need of support or you want to report a potential case of human trafficking, we want you to call the Canadian Human Trafficking hotline at 1 833 900 1010, or the American Human Trafficking hotline at 1 888 373 7888. As Kikelomo said, we all have our part to play in this.
Lisa Raitt
Thanks, Kikelomo.
Kikelomo Lawal
Thank you, Lisa.