Bank of America on Tuesday was fined $1.2 billion for overlooking money laundering and other customer transactions between the United States and countries that included Mexico, Russia and Belarus.
Federal regulators said that Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the United States, failed for years to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, CNBC reported.
According to a news release from the Treasury Department, the penalty was the third-largest ever levied by the agency.
More than $1 billion of the unreported transactions included Chinese money laundering networks and activity tied to the Southwest border of the U.S., the release stated.
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced enforcement actions imposing more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. These actions represent the third-largest penalty in Treasury history and the largest in @USOCC history. https://t.co/O7PCfyFPqO
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) October 13, 2026
Even after the Treasury Department warned Bank of America two years ago to be more vigilant about suspicious activity, transactions continued to flow, The New York Times reported.
According to the news release, the penalty was assessed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for Bank of America’s “failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks.“
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) fined the bank $750 million for its deficiency in its anti-money laundering compliance program.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an $11.6 million settlement agreement with Bank of America over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including those involving Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism, the news release stated.
In a statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that banks “are on the front line” of protecting the nation’s economic and national security.
“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 U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Bessent said. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”
Bank of America neither admitted nor denied the accusations, the Times reported.
Bank spokesperson Christa Robinson said that Bank of America had worked with regulators to resolve the issue.
“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,” Robinson said.
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