US Department of the Treasury fines Bank of America nearly $2 billion over money laundering and sanctions violations.

The US Treasury Department announced yesterday multiple enforcement actions against Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the United States, over failures in its anti-money laundering (AML) framework and violations of sanctions rules. According to the announcement, the total penalties and settlements amount to approximately $19.62 billion: the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a $1.2 billion fine, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) levied a $750 million civil penalty, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reached a $11.6 million settlement with the bank. The Treasury noted that Bank of America failed to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions to FinCEN, with over $1 billion tied to national security and high-priority illicit financial risks—including suspected money laundering networks in Asia, fraud, and potential trade-based money laundering. The bank also had flaws in its transaction monitoring system that left it unable to effectively monitor trillions of dollars in transactions, and repeatedly delayed submitting large volumes of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). Additionally, Bank of America engaged in 475 suspected violations of multiple sanctions programs, including processing correspondent payments through blocked banks and failing to update sanctions lists in a timely manner. The relevant transactions involved sanctions targets linked to Russia, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Somalia, drug trafficking, and global terrorism. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that large financial institutions must abide by AML and sanctions rules, otherwise they will expose the entire US financial system to risks of illicit capital flows.