The US Treasury Department has imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the United States, for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines were announced on Tuesday.
The department said the total includes the third-largest penalty in its history. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the case showed that “even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.” He warned that when a bank of this size falls short, the effects reach well beyond the institution itself.
FinCEN penalty over suspicious transaction reporting
According to the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty. The agency said the bank failed to mitigate and report what it described as priority national security risks, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.
FinCEN identified deficiencies in how the bank spotted and reported suspicious transactions, as well as in its customer due diligence processes. The statement said the bank had effectively outsourced a substantial part of its proactive detection and reporting duties to third parties. The Treasury also said Bank of America failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions on time.
OCC fine and OFAC sanctions settlement
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed a $750 million fine, the largest in its history, over what it called the bank’s deficient and ineffective anti-money laundering compliance programme. The FinCEN penalty includes credit for the OCC fine.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) separately announced an $11.6 million settlement over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programmes, including those related to Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism. Bank of America agreed to settle 475 apparent violations. The agreement includes compliance commitments on training, testing and audit, along with future communication and cooperation with OFAC.
Bank of America responds to regulators
In a statement, Bank of America said: “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right.” The bank said it had invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime.
The bank said its team was well advanced in completing the work needed to address the issues raised by its regulators. The Treasury said the actions underscore the importance of effectively complying with anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements.
