Bank of America is ordered to pay about $1.2 billion in penalties after U.S. authorities find the bank failed to meet anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance obligations. Multiple outlets report the penalties are described as among the largest in the relevant agencies’ enforcement histories.
According to reporting, the action centers on problems monitoring and policing suspicious activity across large volumes of transactions. The U.S. Treasury Department and banking regulators cite failures to properly flag and manage potentially illicit payments, including activity tied to suspected money-laundering networks involving China and related matters connected to criminal activity along the U.S. southern border.
Outlets also differ slightly in emphasis: some focus on the Treasury Department’s sanctions and AML allegations, while others highlight the role of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the bank’s failure to monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and to flag a smaller subset of suspicious transfers, including one figure described by the Financial Times as $5 billion linked to suspected illicit finance.
