The US Treasury has announced penalties totalling more than $1.21 billion against Bank of America over anti-money laundering and sanctions failures, the third-largest penalty in the department’s history.
Bank of America fine broken down
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed $1.2 billion, which includes credit for a $750 million penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the largest in that agency’s history. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) separately settled for $11.6 million.
FinCEN said the bank failed to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border, and did not timely report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions. It also cited weaknesses in customer due diligence and heavy reliance on third parties for detection.
Sanctions violations and bank response
OFAC cited 475 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programmes, including those related to Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism. The settlement includes compliance commitments on training, testing, audit and cooperation with OFAC.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the consequences of a large bank’s failures extend far beyond its own walls. Bank of America said financial crime compliance is serious, that it has invested billions of dollars in technology and thousands of employees, and that it is committed to addressing the issues regulators raised.
