Bank of America Faces $1.2116 Billion in Penalties

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday, October 13, that Bank of America will pay about $1.2116 billion in penalties and settlements over anti-money-laundering failures and apparent sanctions violations. The actions include a $1.2 billion penalty from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) penalty of $750 million credited toward that amount, and an $11.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Treasury said Bank of America failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious activity promptly. More than $1 billion involved national-security or other priority risks, the department said, including activity indicative of Chinese money-laundering networks, fraud and potential trade-based money laundering connected to the southwestern border. The amount refers to activity regulators said was not reported in a timely way; it does not establish that all the transactions were criminal. The OCC said its penalty addressed deficiencies in the bank’s anti-money-laundering program that persisted after a 2024 enforcement order.