US Treasury Fines Bank of America $1.2 Billion for Failures to Report $5 Billion in Suspicious Activity

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The bank failed to report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions, including more than $1 billion tied to national security risks, officials said on Tuesday.

FinCEN assessed a $1.2 billion penalty. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency added a $750 million civil money penalty, the largest in its history. The Office of Foreign Assets Control settled apparent sanctions violations for $11.6 million. The total ranks as the third-largest penalty in Treasury history. Bank of America admitted that it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, conduct required due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts, and file suspicious activity reports in a timely manner.

The unreported activity included transactions indicative of Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and trade-based money laundering with a substantial nexus to the southwest U.S. border. Treasury said the bank prioritized revenues in building its compliance systems and relied too heavily on external inquiries from law enforcement rather than its own monitoring. The OCC found that the bank's transaction monitoring system failed to properly review trillions of dollars in activity. This produced large numbers of late suspicious activity reports involving billions of dollars, many of which showed signs of money laundering.

The conduct covered the period from 2018 through 2025. Bank of America had signed a cease-and-desist order with the OCC in December 2024 that required it to fix longstanding deficiencies. The new penalties address the continued shortcomings. A consent order requires the bank to hire an independent third party to review past transactions, identify activity it previously missed, and report those findings to FinCEN.

Bank of America said its third-quarter results will include a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion, reducing net income by about 17 cents per share. The announcement came less than a day before the bank was scheduled to release earnings. A spokesperson said the bank has already dedicated substantial personnel and resources to remediation and that those costs are in the current expense base.

The fine arrives amid broader scrutiny of large U.S. banks' ability to detect illicit finance linked to China and the southern border. Chinese money laundering networks have drawn increasing attention from U.S. authorities for their role in moving proceeds of drug trafficking and other crimes. The southwest border cases involve trade-based schemes that disguise the movement of funds through commercial activity. Bank of America's size, as the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, means failures in its monitoring affect a significant share of domestic and cross-border payments.

The independent review ordered under the consent order will take months or longer to complete. Its findings could lead to additional reporting requirements or further regulatory action. For now, the $1.2 billion charge is the immediate financial consequence. The bank has said it remains committed to completing the required work.