Bank of America Faces More Than $1.2 Billion in Penalties

Bank of America faces more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties after regulators accused the bank of prolonged anti-money-laundering failures and sanctions violations.

The bank admitted to willfully violating Bank Secrecy Act regulations and failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a record $750 million civil money penalty against Bank of America. That amount counts toward the total announced by Treasury.

Treasury also announced an $11.6 million settlement tied to sanctions violations. The penalties follow regulators’ findings that the bank did not correct longstanding weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering systems.

Bank Secrecy Act requirements are designed to help financial institutions identify and report transactions that may involve money laundering or other illicit activity. The enforcement action places one of the largest US banks under scrutiny for failures involving both transaction monitoring and sanctions compliance.