Bank of America hit with $1.2bn fine for money laundering failings

The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed a $1.2 billion fine on Bank of America for failing to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activities, the department announced on Tuesday. The banking giant allegedly failed to report over $5 billion in suspicious activity to the government, with $1 billion posing national security and illicit finance risks.

This included not flagging transactions possibly involving Chinese money laundering networks or trade-based laundering linked to the southwest border, according to the Treasury. Bank of America stated that its team is committed to addressing the issues raised by regulators. The fine, the third-largest ever imposed by the department, came less than 24 hours before Bank of America was set to announce its quarterly earnings.

Bank of America acknowledged willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act by not maintaining a compliant anti-money laundering program, conducting required due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts, and filing suspicious activity reports. The settlement included $750 billion in penalties from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the largest ever levied by the OCC, and $11.6 million from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for 475 apparent violations of sanctions programmes, including those on Russia and Iran, narcotics, and global terrorism.