Bank of America Fined $1.21B Over AML Failures

· Investigations · United States

U.S. regulators imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America over failures in its anti-money laundering controls and apparent sanctions violations. The bank admitted to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and said it is investing billions of dollars to fix the problems. The penalty is one of the largest recent AML enforcement actions against a major global bank, and it follows years of heightened regulatory attention to how institutions screen transactions and customers for sanctions and illicit finance risks. The bank's admission of willful violations raises the compliance stakes for its peers, which face similar expectations from U.S. authorities. The immediate effect is a costly remediation program at Bank of America and a fresh signal that regulators will pursue large penalties when controls are found lacking.

Why it matters：Large AML penalties against global banks set the compliance bar for the whole financial sector and shape how institutions invest in sanctions screening and financial-crime controls.

Key points

  • Penalties exceeded $1.21 billion, according to U.S. regulators.
  • Bank of America admitted to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
  • The bank said it is investing billions of dollars to fix the problems.

Sources (original reporting)

More stories from this day