The US Treasury Department announced Tuesday it has slapped a $1.2bn (€1.07bn) penalties on Bank of America for anti-money laundering failings. When a bank of this magnitude fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions duties, the implications reach far beyond its own walls, exposing the whole U.S. financial system to severe illicit finance risks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. What we see today is a strong message that even the biggest financial organisations are not above the law.
Bank of America, the country’s second-largest bank, also agreed a $11.6 million (€9.9mn) settlement with the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control over “apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism,” the Treasury said.
Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) had slapped the $1.2bn penalty on Bank of America’s “failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border. The Treasury claimed the bank failed to report more than $5bn (£4.27bn) in suspicious transactions in a timely manner, including more than $1bn (€853mn) related to national security and other priority financial crime issues. That includes a $750 million (€640mn) penalty from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the biggest penalties ever levied by the federal banking regulator.
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