CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-based Bank of America faces more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties after the Treasury Department said the bank failed anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance duties, regulators announced Tuesday.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network assessed a $1.2 billion penalty, described as the third-largest fine in Treasury history after earlier actions against Binance and TD Bank. The package also includes a $750 million Office of the Comptroller of the Currency penalty that will be credited against the FinCEN assessment rather than stacked on top.
Treasury said the bank failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and to report more than $5 billion in suspicious activity, including activity potentially tied to Chinese money-laundering networks, narcotics trafficking and fraud. An $11.6 million Office of Foreign Assets Control settlement over apparent sanctions violations brings the total above $1.21 billion.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law and that failures at a bank of this size expose the wider U.S. financial system to illicit finance risks. Bank of America stock slipped after the announcement and ahead of third-quarter earnings.
A Bank of America spokesperson said financial crime compliance is serious and that the Charlotte, North Carolina based lender has invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime. The bank said it will book a non-tax-deductible $1.2 billion charge that cuts net income by about 17 cents a share in the third quarter.
Regulators said the bank admits it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act requirements that help the government detect money laundering. The enforcement case lands on one of Charlotte largest private employers and a cornerstone of the local banking economy.
