US fines Bank of America $1.2bn for money laundering, sanctions violations

Published On 14 Oct 202614 Oct 2026.

Key points

• "Bank of America failed to timely report to FinCEN over $5 billion dollars in suspicious transactions", the Treasury remarked in the statement.
• In response, Bank of America remarked in an official note: "Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right."
• The fines confirmed on Tuesday include the third-largest penalty in the department's history, the US Treasury stated in an official note.
• The failures identified by FinCEN involved deficiencies related to the bank's suspicious transaction identification and reporting and customer due diligence processes.
• FinCEN's $1.2 billion penalty includes credit for the OCC fine.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury Department has imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the US, for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

In practice, the fines confirmed on Tuesday include the third-largest penalty in the department's history, the US Treasury stated in an official note.

"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 US financial system to significant illicit finance risks, " US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remarked.

He continued that these "actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law".

According to the Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty over the bank's failure to mitigate and report "priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border".

Meanwhile, the failures identified by FinCEN involved deficiencies related to the bank's suspicious transaction identification and reporting and customer due diligence processes. According to the statement, "the Bank effectively outsourced to third parties a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations".

For context, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) assessed a $750 million fine, the largest in its history, for the bank's deficient and ineffective anti-money laundering compliance programme. FinCEN's $1.2 billion penalty includes credit for the OCC fine.

In practice, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) additionally unveiled an $11.6 million settlement agreement over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programmes, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism.

Bank of America agreed to settle 475 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programmes, and the settlement includes "significant compliance commitments regarding training, testing and audit, and future communication and cooperation with OFAC".

In the statement, the Treasury remarked the actions "underscore the importance of effectively complying" with US anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements.

"We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators."

In short, US fines Bank of America $1.2bn for money laundering, sanctions violations is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.