Bank of America fined $1.2 billion for breaching anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations
The Treasury Department has imposed one of the highest fines in its history
The US Treasury Department has announced that it is imposing a fine of $1.2 billion on Bank of America, which is accused of breaching anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines imposed on the second-largest bank in the US represent the third-highest penalty in the Department’s history.
“When a bank of this size fails to meet its obligations regarding anti-money laundering and sanctions, the consequences extend far beyond its borders, exposing the entire US financial system to significant risks associated with illicit financial flows,” the Treasury Secretary said in a statement Scott Bessent. “Today’s actions send a clear message: not even the largest financial institutions are above the law.”
The Treasury also announced that Bank of America had reached an $11.6 million settlement with the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in relation to ‘alleged breaches of numerous sanctions programmes, including those concerning Iran, Russia, drug trafficking and global terrorism’.
In a statement, the Treasury clarified that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had imposed a fine of $1.2 billion due to Bank of America’s failure to mitigate and report priority risks to national security, including Chinese money-laundering networks and illicit financial activities along the south-western border.
The penalty includes $750 million to be paid to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); this is the largest fine ever imposed by this federal banking regulator.
