Bank of America fined $1.2 billion over money-laundering violations
The action by the Treasury Department was announced less than a day before Bank of America reports quarterly earnings.
TL;DR
- Bank of America fined over $1.2 billion for anti-money-laundering failures and unreported suspicious transactions.
- More than $1 billion of the unreported activity involved national security risks, including Chinese money-laundering networks and activity tied to the southwest border.
- The penalties include a $1 billion fine from Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and a $750 million civil money penalty from the OCC.
- Bank of America admitted to willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, including failing to maintain a compliant anti-money-laundering program.
- The bank stated it has invested billions in compliance and is nearing remediation efforts, noting the penalties will result in a $1.2 billion non-tax-deductible charge.
- Regulators accused the bank of prioritizing revenue over compliance resources and effectively outsourcing its suspicious activity detection responsibilities.
- The OCC called the bank's BSA violations egregious and stated the penalty is its largest ever assessed against a bank.
- The bank will undergo third-party reviews for undetected suspicious transactions and independent reviews of its monitoring and due-diligence programs.