Bank of America Fined $1.21bn Over AML Failures

US authorities have imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America over failures in its anti-money laundering controls and apparent sanctions breaches. The Treasury described the FinCEN penalty as the third largest in its history.

FinCEN found the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, over $1 billion of which involved priority risks such as Chinese money laundering networks and activity along the US southwestern border. The bank admitted wilfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, including failing to maintain an adequate AML programme and to carry out due diligence on correspondent accounts for foreign banks. The OCC also levied its largest-ever penalty, saying the bank had not fixed problems identified in a 2024 order.

Separately, OFAC reached an $11.66 million settlement covering 475 apparent violations of sanctions programmes including those on Russia and Iran. A consent order requires an independent lookback of past transactions. The bank says it has moved around 1,000 staff onto remediation.

Article Credit: https://www.occrp.org/en/news/bank-of-america-fined-121b-over-aml-failures