The US Department of the Treasury has announced enforcement actions imposing more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
The actions include the third-largest penalty in Treasury history and the largest in the history of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty for the bank's failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the US southwest border.
The OCC assessed a $750 million civil money penalty over deficiencies in the bank's anti-money laundering compliance programme, while the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an $11.6 million settlement over apparent violations of multiple sanctions programmes.
Bank Of America Failed To Report Over $5 Billion In Suspicious Transactions
According to FinCEN, Bank of America failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely manner.
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More than $1 billion of this activity involved national security-related and other priority illicit finance risks, including suspicious transactions indicative of Chinese money laundering networks, fraud and potential trade-based money laundering linked to the US southwest border.
FinCEN said the bank willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering programme, conduct required due diligence on correspondent accounts held for foreign financial institutions, and file suspicious activity reports (SARs).
The investigation identified deficiencies in suspicious transaction monitoring and customer due diligence. FinCEN said the bank relied on law enforcement inquiries and requests from other financial institutions to identify potentially suspicious activity instead of relying adequately on its own internal controls. Some suspicious activity also remained uninvestigated for extended periods, resulting in delayed reporting.
The investigation further found that the bank's customer due diligence processes failed to account for customers' extensive reliance on payments from unknown third parties. Concerns included potential links to narcotics trafficking proceeds, trade-based money laundering and fraud.
As part of the resolution, Bank of America must work with a third party to review past transactions and identify suspicious activity that may have gone undetected. It must also undergo independent reviews of its suspicious activity monitoring, customer due diligence, correspondent account due diligence and relevant data governance framework.
OCC Imposes $750 Million Penalty Over Compliance Failures
The OCC imposed a $750 million civil money penalty over what it described as a deficient and ineffective Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance programme.
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The regulator said the bank's transaction monitoring system failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions, resulting in numerous delayed suspicious activity reports involving billions of dollars. It also cited shortcomings in staff training, internal audits and management oversight.
The OCC noted that Bank of America remained subject to a December 2024 cease-and-desist order requiring it to address deficiencies in its compliance programme. More than a year after that order, the bank continued to face problems escalating potentially suspicious activities for investigation, according to the regulator.
OFAC Settlement Covers 475 Apparent Sanctions Violations
Separately, Bank of America agreed to an $11.6 million settlement with OFAC over 475 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programmes.
The cases involved payments processed through blocked banks, transactions involving designated individuals, delayed updates to sanctions watchlists and accounts associated with blocked persons. The apparent violations involved sanctions programmes targeting Russia, Belarus, Iran, Burma, Somalia, narcotics and global terrorism.
OFAC said the settlement reflected its determination that the apparent violations were non-egregious and largely not voluntarily self-disclosed. The bank also made compliance commitments covering training, testing, audits and future communication and cooperation with OFAC.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the enforcement actions underscored the importance of financial institutions meeting their anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, adding that failures can expose the wider US financial system to illicit finance risks.
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