The United States Treasury Department has imposed a $1.2 billion penalty on Bank of America over alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
The penalty against America’s second-largest bank ranks as the third-largest in the Treasury Department’s history.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the bank’s alleged failures posed risks to the wider financial system by leaving it exposed to illegal financial activities.
“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,” Bessent said. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”
The Treasury Department also announced an $11.6 million settlement between the bank and its Office of Foreign Assets Control over apparent violations of several sanctions programmes involving Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism.
The department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed the $1.2 billion penalty over what it described as the bank’s failure to address and report major national security risks, including Chinese money-laundering networks and illegal financial activities along the US south-western border.
The penalty includes $750 million payable to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, marking the largest fine ever imposed by the federal banking regulator.
The Treasury Department said Bank of America admitted that it had wilfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which requires financial institutions to help detect and prevent money laundering.
In response, the bank said it had worked with regulators to resolve the penalties linked to issues identified in a previously reported 2024 regulatory consent order and a FinCEN investigation.
“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,” the bank said, adding that it had invested billions of dollars in technology and employed thousands of workers to combat financial crime.
The latest penalty follows major enforcement actions against cryptocurrency exchange Binance in 2023 and Canada-based TD Bank in 2024, which resulted in settlements of about $4 billion and $3 billion, respectively.
