Bank of America fined $1.2bn by US Treasury for money laundering failures

The US Treasury Department fined Bank of America $1.2bn for failing to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activity, as the bank failed to report over $5bn in suspicious activity, including $1bn posing national security and illicit finance risks. Failures included not flagging transactions possibly involving Chinese money laundering networks or trade-based laundering linked to the southwest border. Bank of America admitted to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and will incur a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion impacting net income by approximately 17 cents per share in its third-quarter results. The fine includes $750m from the OCC's largest penalty and $11.6m from OFAC related to 475 apparent sanctions violations involving Russia, Iran, narcotics, and global terrorism.