The US Treasury has fined Bank of America more than USD 1.21 billion over anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance failures.
The US Treasury has announced penalties of more than USD 1.21 billion against Bank of America for anti-money laundering failures. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed USD 1.2 billion, while the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) settled 475 apparent sanctions violations for USD 11.6 million. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also assessed a USD 750 million civil money penalty, which the Treasury credited towards the FinCEN penalty, keeping the total at about USD 1.21 billion.
Findings on detection and compliance resources
According to the Treasury, the bank effectively outsourced a substantial portion of its proactive detection to third parties, prioritised its revenues, and minimised the impact on its required compliance resources. The penalties come nearly two years after a cease-and-desist order required the bank to fix the same controls, with regulators finding its progress insufficient.
Jonathan Gould, Comptroller of the Currency, described Bank of America’s response to its Bank Secrecy Act deficiencies as unacceptable. The bank stated that it takes financial crime compliance seriously and is responsible for getting it right. As part of the outcome, an outside party will review suspicious transactions the bank failed to detect, and independent assessments of its compliance controls will follow, adding to the remediation work required of the bank.
Remediation and enforcement context
Bank of America will record a USD 1.2 billion charge that is not tax-deductible, which the bank said will reduce earnings by about 17 cents per share. Because the penalty is not deductible, it receives no tax offset and reduces net income by its full amount. The remediation measures will also continue beyond the payment itself, as the outside review of missed suspicious transactions and the independent assessments of the bank’s controls proceed.
The case follows other major US enforcement actions over anti-money laundering failures. In October 2024, TD Bank pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations and agreed to pay about USD 3 billion in penalties, with the OCC also imposing a cap on the asset growth of its US operations. Together, the two cases show US regulators’ focus on whether banks maintain adequate transaction monitoring and complete remediation after enforcement orders, rather than treating compliance weaknesses as a one-off cost.
