Bank Of America Hit With $1.21 Billion In Treasury Penalties Over Money Laundering, Sanctions Failures
By CU Today Staff —
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury Department has announced enforcement actions imposing more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, including failures to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions.
The actions against the nation's second-largest bank include what Treasury described as its third-largest penalty ever and the largest in the history of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2-billion penalty for failures involving money laundering risks tied to Chinese networks and illicit finance along the southwest border. The OCC separately assessed a $750-million civil money penalty for deficiencies in the bank's anti-money laundering compliance program, while the Office of Foreign Assets Control announced an $11.6-million settlement involving apparent sanctions violations related to Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism.
Treasury's announcement described the combined penalties as exceeding $1.21 billion, although the individual assessments total approximately $1.96 billion.
“Financial institutions are on the front lines of protecting our economic and national security,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “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. Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”
According to FinCEN, Bank of America admitted willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program, conduct required due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts and file suspicious activity reports. Investigators found the bank prioritized revenue over compliance resources, relied heavily on law enforcement and other financial institutions to identify suspicious activity and allowed potentially illicit transactions to go uninvestigated for extended periods. More than $1 billion of the $5 billion in suspicious transactions involved priority illicit finance and national security risks, including potential narcotics trafficking, fraud and trade-based money laundering.
Under FinCEN's consent order, Bank of America must engage a third party to review previously undetected suspicious transactions and report qualifying activity to regulators. The bank must also undergo independent reviews of its transaction monitoring, customer due diligence, foreign correspondent account oversight and data governance practices. Those reviews will specifically examine the bank's ability to detect risks involving southwest border cartels, narcotics trafficking, Iran and Russia.
Originally reported by CU Today.