Published on •Updated
The US Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it had imposed a $1.2bn (€1.07bn) fine on Bank of America for anti-money laundering failures.
"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," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Today's actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law."
Treasury said Bank of America, the country’s second-biggest bank, also reached an $11.6 million (€9.9mn) settlement with the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control over "apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism."
In a statement, Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed the $1.2bn penalty for Bank of America's "failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border."
Treasury said the bank failed to report more than $5bn (€4.27bn) in suspicious transactions on time, including over $1bn (€853mn) linked to national security and other priority financial crime risks.
The penalty includes a $750 million (€640mn) fine imposed by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest fine ever imposed by the federal banking regulator.
Treasury said that Bank of America "admits that it willfully violated" the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to help the government detect and prevent money laundering.
"Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right," Bank of America said in a statement. "We worked with regulators to reach these penalty resolutions stemming from violations cited in the previously reported 2024 (Comptroller of the Currency) Consent Order and FinCEN's investigation.
"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."
The latest action is the third-largest penalty ever issued by the Treasury Department, behind a roughly $4bn (€3.41bn) settlement in 2023 with Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and an approximately $3bn (€2.56bn) settlement with Canada-based TD Bank the following year.
Both settlements were part of the Biden administration's efforts to combat money laundering. Its broader push also aimed to improve compliance in the cryptocurrency industry.
In 2024, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform. Prosecutors said criminals had used it to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.
US President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October 2025.