Bank of America fined $1.2 billion for anti-money laundering failures

US authorities have imposed a $1.2 billion (€1.07 billion) penalty on Bank of America for failing to meet anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations. The Treasury Department announced the action on Tuesday, citing the bank’s inadequate reporting of suspicious transactions and violations of numerous sanctions programs. The settlement includes a $1.2 billion penalty from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and a $750 million (€640 million) fine from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the largest ever imposed by that federal banking regulator.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent underscored the seriousness of the lapses. “When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” he said. Bessent added that the action sends a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.

Details of the violations

The bank failed to report over $5 billion (€4.27 billion) in suspicious transactions on time, with more than $1 billion (€853 million) of that linked to national security and other priority financial crime risks. FinCEN cited failures to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border. Bank of America also reached an $11.6 million (€9.9 million) settlement with the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for apparent violations of sanctions programs related to Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism.

Bank of America admitted that it willfully violated the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to help the government detect and prevent money laundering. In a statement, the bank said, “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right.” It noted that it has invested billions in technology and thousands of employees to combat financial crime and is committed to completing the work required by regulators.

This is the third-largest penalty ever imposed by the Treasury Department. The largest was a roughly $4 billion (€3.41 billion) settlement in 2023 with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, followed by a $3 billion (€2.56 billion) settlement with Canada-based TD Bank the following year. Those actions were part of the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen anti-money laundering enforcement and improve compliance in the cryptocurrency industry.