Bank of America hit with $1.21 billion in penalties from FinCEN, OCC and OFAC

FinCEN says Bank of America admitted willful Bank Secrecy Act violations

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday imposed three separate penalties totaling more than $1.21 billion against Bank of America for failing to mitigate and report national security risks and violating U.S. sanctions laws.

The largest of the penalties was a $1.2 billion fine from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — the third-largest in Treasury history — for failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely manner. The Treasury said that as the issues arose, Bank of America prioritized its revenue and worked to minimize the impact on its required compliance resources.

Treasury said more than $1 billion of the unreported transactions involved national security-related and other priority illicit financial risks. The transactions included those indicative of Chinese money laundering networks, fraud and potential trade-based money laundering with “a substantial nexus to the southwest border,” according to FinCEN.

FinCEN said Bank of America admitted to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act through its compliance failures.

“Financial institutions are on the front lines of protecting our economic and national security. When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

The Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency separately assessed its largest-ever $750 million civil penalty over the bank’s deficient and ineffective anti-money-laundering compliance program. FinCEN agreed to count the civil money penalty toward its $1.2 billion fine, according to a 95-page consent order.

The third action was an $11.6 million settlement announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs involving Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism, the Treasury said.

“Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law,” Bessent said.

A Bank of America spokesperson, in an emailed statement to UPI, said the bank worked with regulators to reach the penalty resolutions.

“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,” the spokesperson said.

“We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.”

The spokesperson said the penalties stem from violations cited in a 2024 OCC consent order and FinCEN’s investigation. The Treasury stated that even after the bank agreed to the 2024 order, it “still failed to prioritize” compliance with money-laundering monitoring responsibilities.

“We will continue to support federal and local law enforcement across thousands of investigations and report hundreds of thousands of suspicious activity reports each year,” the spokesperson said.

Bank of America is the second-largest U.S. bank by assets.