The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a USD 750 million civil money penalty on Bank of America for persistent violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and related regulations. The largest penalty in the OCC’s history reflects widespread breakdowns in the bank’s anti-money laundering controls and its failure to make sufficient progress under a December 2024 cease and desist order. Deficient transaction monitoring prevented the bank from properly monitoring trillions of dollars in transactions and led to large numbers of late suspicious activity reports involving billions of dollars, many with indicators of money laundering. The bank knew for years that potentially suspicious activity was not being escalated for investigation but failed to correct the issue. The OCC also identified inadequate expertise and training among key compliance personnel, inaccurate and late reports, and an audit function that failed to detect longstanding weaknesses. After agreeing to the 2024 order, the bank did not complete significant remediation steps and continued to process potential trade based money laundering transactions because of a systemic monitoring gap. The action is coordinated with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is assessing a USD 1.2 billion fine that credits the OCC’s USD 750 million penalty and requires additional remediation.
US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposes record USD 750 million penalty on Bank of America over persistent BSA and AML failures
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a record USD 750 million penalty on Bank of America for persistent Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering failures. Deficient monitoring affected trillions of dollars in transactions and produced late suspicious activity reports involving billions of dollars, while significant weaknesses remained after a December 2024 enforcement order. FinCEN is separately assessing a USD 1.2 billion fine that credits the OCC penalty and requires remediation.