Bank of America hit with $1.2bn money laundering fine — SkimNews
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- Bank of America was fined $1.2bn (£910m) by the US Treasury for failing to detect and report over $5bn in suspicious transactions, $1bn of which posed national security and illicit finance risks.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the fine the third-largest the department has ever imposed, warning that compliance failures at a bank of this size expose the entire US financial system to illicit finance risks.
- The flagged transactions included those possibly involving Chinese money laundering networks and trade-based laundering "with a substantial nexus to the southwest border," according to the Treasury.
- Bank of America admitted it "willfully violated" the Bank Secrecy Act and will book a non-tax-deductible $1.2bn charge in its Q3 results, reducing net income by approximately 17 cents per share.
- The Treasury said the bank overly relied on outside inquiries from law enforcement and other institutions, "effectively outsourcing" a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations.
- The OCC's $750m penalty marked the largest it has ever levied, while OFAC's separate $11.6m settlement covered 475 apparent violations of sanctions programs on Russia, Iran, narcotics, and global terrorism.
Why it matters: The Treasury characterized the lapses as "willful" Bank Secrecy Act violations and called the fine its third-largest ever, with the OCC's $750m portion its biggest on record — signaling escalated AML enforcement against major US banks. The $1.2bn charge lands less than 24 hours before Bank of America's Q3 earnings, immediately cutting net income by ~17 cents per share.
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