Bank of America fined 1 billion dollars
US authorities imposed a total of $1.21 billion in fines against Bank of America for suspected breaches of anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations. The Treasury Department announced the penalties on October 13, involving actions from FinCEN, OFAC, and the OCC. These agencies collectively addressed the bank’s compliance failures in financial crime prevention.
According to the Treasury, FinCEN assessed a $1.2 billion penalty for “the bank’s failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border”. This fine includes a $750 million civil money penalty by the OCC, the largest in its history, over “the bank’s deficient and ineffective BSA/AML (anti-money laundering) compliance program”, the Treasury continues.
Regulatory Actions
The Treasury says on top of this, OFAC announced an $11.6 million settlement agreement with Bank of America over “apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism”. A spokesperson for the lender stated that “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right.”
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The lender is currently the second-largest bank in the US, behind JP Morgan Chase, and recorded $3.41 trillion in total assets in recent filings, serving approximately 69 million consumer and business clients globally. It had been subject to a cease-and-desist order issued by the OCC in December 2024, through which it was required to address its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance program and enhance its transaction monitoring systems.
Consequences and Response
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent commented that “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 US financial system to significant illicit finance risks.” The Treasury states that as part of its resolution with FinCEN, the institution “admits that it willfully violated the BSA” and failed to implement and maintain an AML program.
In response to the penalties, its spokesperson said that the institution has “invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.” The bank will include a non-tax-deductible charge of that amount impacting net income by approximately 17 cents per share in its third-quarter results.
