Bank of America Slapped with $1.2 Billion Fine for Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Violations

Bank of America has been ordered to pay over $1.2 billion in penalties after the Treasury Department determined the financial institution violated anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. This significant fine ranks as the third-largest ever imposed by the Treasury Department. In addition to this, Bank of America must also pay $750 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), marking the largest penalty ever issued by the OCC. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control also finalized an $11.6 million settlement with the bank concerning 475 apparent breaches of sanctions targeting Russia, Belarus, Iran, Burma, Somalia, narcotics, and global terrorism.

As the second-largest bank in the United States, serving over 70 million clients, Bank of America processes approximately $4.5 trillion in customer payments annually. Its operations also facilitate over $450 trillion in payments related to employee payrolls, supplier invoices, and corporate credit cards, alongside an average of $1.9 trillion in global wire transfers daily for its clients.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated, “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. Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”

Bank of America has acknowledged willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, a law requiring banks to aid the Treasury in identifying and preventing money laundering. The bank failed to report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Of this amount, more than $1 billion was linked to national security risks, Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and other activities with a substantial connection to the south-west border.

In 2024, the OCC issued a cease-and-desist order against Bank of America due to deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act and compliance programs. Jonathan Gould, Comptroller of the Currency, commented, “The bank’s poor response to its BSA deficiencies is unacceptable.” This action follows a recent OCC penalty against American Express, which was fined $350 million for allowing approximately $13 billion in suspected money laundering activities to go undetected for over a decade due to its compliance program failures.

Bank of America is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday.