US hits Bank of America with $1.2 billion penalty over money laundering, sanctions
The Treasury Department says the second-largest US bank failed to report risks tied to Chinese money laundering networks. The bank says it has invested billions to fight financial crime.
Archive image · Photo: Raman Patel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped and resized)
The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed penalties totaling more than $1.21 billion on Bank of America, which the department described as the third-largest in its history. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed $1.2 billion, which includes credit for a $750 million fine from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the largest in that regulator's history. The bank also reached an $11.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Regulators said the nation's second-largest bank failed to mitigate and report "priority national security risks," including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border. It failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely manner and effectively outsourced much of its detection and reporting obligations to third parties, according to FinCEN. OFAC cited 475 apparent violations of sanctions programs, including those concerning Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the actions send a clear message that "even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law." Bank of America said: "Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right." It said it had invested billions of dollars in technology, dedicated thousands of employees to combating financial crime and was far along in addressing the issues raised by regulators.