Business & Finance

Bank of America Faces $1.21 Billion in Treasury Penalties for Sanctions and Money‑Laundering Violations

By AP

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it will impose more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America, the country’s second‑largest bank, for violations of anti‑money‑laundering and sanctions laws. The fines represent the third‑largest penalty ever issued by the Treasury. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the bank’s failures expose the entire U.S. financial system to illicit finance risks and that the actions send a clear message that even the biggest institutions are not above the law.

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. The agency cited deficiencies in the bank’s suspicious‑transaction identification, reporting and customer‑due‑diligence processes, noting that the bank effectively outsourced a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations to third parties. FinCEN also said the bank failed to timely report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed a $750 million fine, the largest in its history, for the bank’s deficient and ineffective anti‑money‑laundering compliance program. FinCEN’s $1.2 billion penalty includes credit for the OCC fine.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an $11.6 million settlement agreement over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including those related to Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism. Bank of America agreed to settle 475 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs and committed to significant compliance measures such as training, testing, audit, and future communication and cooperation with OFAC.

In a statement, Bank of America said, “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right.” The bank added that it has invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and that its team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by regulators.