Bank of America hit with $1.2bn fine for money laundering failings

Bank of America fined $1.2bn for money laundering failings

The full report

Bank of America has been fined $1.2bn (£910m) for failing to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activity, the US Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The banking giant failed to report over $5bn in suspicious activity to the government, $1bn of which posed national security and illicit finance risks, the Treasury said.

The Treasury said the bank overly relied on inquiries from outside parties like law enforcement and other financial institutions instead of its own internal controls. This meant that it "effectively outsourced to third parties a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations," the department said.

As part of the settlement, Bank of America admitted that it "willfully violated" the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering programme, conduct required due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts and file suspicious activity reports, the Treasury said.

The $1.2bn fine included penalties imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The OCC's $750m fine marked the biggest penalty it has ever levied. OFAC said its settlement with the bank was tied to 475 apparent violations of sanctions programmes including those on Russia and Iran, narcotics, and global terrorism.