US fines Bank of America $1.2bn for money laundering, sanctions violations

The second-largest US bank faces record penalties for failing to comply with sanctions and money laundering laws.

A Bank of America logo is seen on the entrance to one of the bank's financial centres in New York City [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]

The US Treasury Department has imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the US, for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.

The fines announced on Tuesday include the third-largest penalty in the department’s history, the US Treasury said in a statement.

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“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 US financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

He added that these “actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law”.

According to the Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty over the bank’s failure to mitigate and report “priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border”.

The failures identified by FinCEN involved deficiencies related to the bank’s suspicious transaction identification and reporting and customer due diligence processes. According to the statement, “the Bank effectively outsourced to third parties a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations”.

“Bank of America failed to timely report to FinCEN over $5 billion dollars in suspicious transactions”, the Treasury said in the statement.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) assessed a $750 million fine, the largest in its history, for the bank’s deficient and ineffective anti-money laundering compliance programme. FinCEN’s $1.2 billion penalty includes credit for the OCC fine.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also announced an $11.6 million settlement agreement over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programmes, including on Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism.

Bank of America agreed to settle 475 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programmes, and the settlement includes “significant compliance commitments regarding training, testing and audit, and future communication and cooperation with OFAC”.

In the statement, the Treasury said the actions “underscore the importance of effectively complying” with US anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements.

In response, Bank of America said in a statement: “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right.”

“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.”

美国第二大银行因未能遵守制裁和反洗钱法律，面临创纪录的罚款。

在纽约市一家美国银行金融中心的入口处可以看到美国银行的标志。[图片：Brendan McDermid/路透社]

美国财政部对美国第二大银行美国银行处以超过 12.1 亿美元的罚款，原因是该银行违反了反洗钱和制裁法。

美国财政部在一份声明中表示，周二宣布的罚款中包括该部门历史上第三高的罚款。

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美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示：“当一家如此规模的银行未能履行其反洗钱和制裁义务时，其后果远远超出其自身范围，使整个美国金融体系面临重大的非法金融风险。”

他还补充说，这些“行动传递了一个明确的信息，那就是即使是最大的金融机构也不能凌驾于法律之上”。

据美国财政部称，金融犯罪执法网络 (FinCEN) 对该银行处以 12 亿美元的罚款，原因是该银行未能减轻和报告“优先国家安全风险，包括中国洗钱网络和西南边境的非法融资”。

FinCEN 发现的问题涉及该银行可疑交易识别和报告以及客户尽职调查流程方面的缺陷。声明称，“该银行实际上将其主动检测和报告义务的很大一部分外包给了第三方”。

美国财政部在声明中表示，“美国银行未能及时向金融犯罪执法网络（FinCEN）报告超过50亿美元的可疑交易”。

美国货币监理署（OCC）因该银行反洗钱合规计划存在缺陷且效果不佳，对其处以7.5亿美元的罚款，这是该机构历史上最高的罚款金额。金融犯罪执法网络（FinCEN）最终处以的12亿美元罚款中已包含对OCC罚款的抵扣。

美国外国资产控制办公室 (OFAC) 还宣布了一项 1160 万美元的和解协议，以解决明显违反多项制裁计划的行为，包括针对伊朗、俄罗斯、毒品和全球恐怖主义的制裁。

美国银行同意就 475 项明显违反多项制裁计划的行为达成和解，和解协议包括“有关培训、测试和审计以及未来与美国财政部外国资产控制办公室 (OFAC) 的沟通与合作的重大合规承诺”。

美国财政部在声明中表示，这些行动“凸显了有效遵守”美国反洗钱和制裁要求的重要性。

对此，美国银行在一份声明中表示：“金融犯罪合规是一件严肃的事情，我们有责任确保合规工作万无一失。”

“我们已投入数十亿美元用于技术研发，并投入数千名员工打击金融犯罪，我们的团队在解决监管机构提出的问题方面取得了长足进展，并致力于完成所需工作。”