Live: Bank of America fined $US1.2 billion for anti-money laundering failures

The Treasury Department has imposed a substantial fine of over $1.2 billion on Bank of America for alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, marking it as the third-largest fine in its history. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also settled with the bank for $11.6 million following 475 sanctions violations, primarily targeting Russia, Belarus, Iran, Burma, Somalia, narcotics, and global terrorism.

Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the US, processes a staggering $4.5 trillion in payments for its 70 million clients annually, including over $450 trillion in employee payrolls, supplier payments, and corporate credit cards. In addition, the bank handles an average of $1.9 trillion in wire transfers daily for clients worldwide.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized that when a bank of Bank of America's size fails to adhere to its anti-money-laundering and sanctions obligations, it endangers the entire US financial system by exposing it to significant illicit finance risks. The bank knowingly violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, with over $1 billion implicating national security risks, likely originating from Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and other activities with ties to the southwestern border.

The Office of the Comprotroller of the Currency had previously issued a cease-and-desist order against Bank of America in 2024 due to deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act and compliance programs. The bank's inadequate response to these issues is deemed unacceptable, according to Jonathan Gould, Comproller of the Currency. This fine follows a recent action taken by the OCC against American Express, which was fined $350 million for allowing about $13 billion in suspected money laundering to go undetected for over a decade. Bank of America is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday.