How We Operate

This Is Why
The Knoble Exists

To inspire and equip financial sector professionals, and those that support them, to engage in the fight against human crime.

Financial crime professionals collaborating
$150B
Human trafficking generates an estimated $150 billion in illegal profits each year. The financial system can change that.
The Gap
Financial Crime Goes Unseen

Human crime moves through the same financial systems used every day. Scams drain life savings. Children are exploited through ordinary accounts. Older adults are targeted and stripped of their financial security.

The financial industry has built powerful systems to detect risk across billions of transactions. Yet human crime continues to move through these same channels largely unnoticed.

The Knoble was founded to address this disconnect. What began as a conversation between Ian Mitchell and UN human trafficking expert Matt Friedman has grown into a global network of financial crime professionals working together to close this gap and protect people from exploitation.

The Founding Insight

Not a technology gap. Not a regulatory gap. A people gap.

The analysts and investigators already had the skills. They just hadn't been pointed at the problem.

Behind every suspicious transaction is a human being.

Human Trafficking

Forced labor, sex trafficking, debt bondage flowing through banking systems.

Scams

Pig butchering, romance fraud, investment scams devastating families.

Child Exploitation

Financial transactions funding abuse — detectable in ordinary accounts.

Elder Financial Exploitation

Sophisticated schemes stripping elderly individuals of dignity and savings.

Theory of Change
Individual → Institution → Industry

That founding insight became a model. By empowering people within financial institutions, we create change that ripples outward — transforming not just individuals, but banks, and the entire industry.

Phase 1 · Direct Impact
The Individual

Financial crime professionals discover that the data they already review may be connected to human crime. They get awareness, tools, and a community to act.

Phase 2 · Secondary Impact
The Institution

Equipped professionals advocate for change. Detection improves. Human crime becomes a compliance priority. The institution formally commits.

Phase 3 · Industry Change
The System

Collaboration becomes standard. Competitive barriers fall. Fighting human crime becomes how the financial industry operates.

How We Do It
Awaken. Equip. Mobilize.

Three pillars drive our direct impact on individuals — the first phase of our Theory of Change. Each one builds on the last.

01
Awaken
See the Problem

Raise awareness among financial service professionals that human trafficking generates financial patterns they already have the skills to detect. The data was always there. The awareness wasn't.

02
Equip
Build the Capability

Detection guides, SAR templates, investigative toolkits, training programs, and the Human Crime Specialist certification. Practical resources that turn awareness into action.

03
Mobilize
Act Together

Cross-institutional working groups, strategic initiatives, and the Member Center. Breaking down competitive barriers to fight human crime collectively across the industry.

For Your Institution
What Corporate Membership Delivers

The return on investment takes multiple forms — from improving detection capabilities to enhancing ESG scores to directly contributing to the bottom line.

Detection & Compliance

Improved fraud detection, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiencies through shared intelligence and standardized approaches.

Human Crime Specialist

A defined role within your institution — the primary coordinator for combating human crime through financial detection and prevention.

Network of 2,600+

Access to the Member Center, working groups, and a cross-institutional network. Your teams connect with peers who face the same challenges.

Brand & ESG Impact

Corporate association with The Knoble demonstrates concrete action against exploitation. Strengthens ESG positioning with measurable outcomes.

Proof It Works
Strategic Initiatives

Collaborative projects that produce real tools, generate actionable intelligence, and drive measurable outcomes.

Child Exploitation
Project Umbra

Provided banks with investigative toolkits to identify CSE-linked accounts. Tracked suspect accounts, SARs filed, and banking relationships severed. Produced a scored model that proactively flags suspicious accounts.

Scams & Reporting
SAR Initiative

FIs and law enforcement created "good," "better," "best" SAR amendment templates — standardizing what information to include so reports are actually actionable for investigations.

Human Trafficking
Super Bowl Initiative

Partnered FIs with law enforcement around major events. Law enforcement provides targeted intelligence and trafficking scenarios. FIs analyze transaction data through a streamlined SAR process.

Real-Time Collaboration
Member Center

An FI fraud executive needed to stop a scam payment at another bank. No contact there. Through the Member Center she found the right person — the victim kept their money.

Get Involved
Bring Your Institution In

Corporate membership gives your teams access to detection guides, working groups, the Member Center, and a network of financial service professionals.