The key facts

  • The US Treasury fined Bank of America $1.2 billion for violations of the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act
  • The bank failed to timely report suspicious transactions totaling more than $5 billion, including over $1 billion related to national security
  • Additionally, the bank will pay $11.6 million under an agreement with OFAC for alleged violations of sanctions programs against Iran, Russia, drug trafficking and terrorism

$1.2 billion fine and admission of guilt

The US Department of the Treasury announced on Tuesday a fine of $1.2 billion (€1.07 billion) against Bank of America — the country's second-largest bank — for failures in its anti-money laundering system. According to the department, the bank 'admits that it willfully violated' the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to help the state detect and prevent money laundering. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed the fine for 'failure to timely mitigate risks and report priority national security threats, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit financial activity along the southwest border'.

Unreported transactions and sanctions violations

The Treasury stated that the bank failed to timely report suspicious transactions totaling more than $5 billion (€4.27 billion), including over $1 billion (€853 million) related to national security and other priority financial crime risks. In addition, Bank of America reached an agreement worth $11.6 million (€9.9 million) with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over 'apparent violations of a wide range of sanctions programs, including those concerning Iran, Russia, drug trafficking and global terrorism'. The total includes a $750 million (€640 million) fine from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the largest in the history of that federal banking regulator.

Reaction of authorities and the bank

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: 'When a bank of this scale fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls and put the entire US financial system at risk.' According to him, 'even the largest financial institutions are not above the law.' Bank of America noted in its statement: 'Compliance with financial crimes requirements is a matter of the utmost seriousness, and we take responsibility for meeting them properly.' The bank said it cooperated with regulators to reach the penalty agreements related to a 2024 consent order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FinCEN investigation, and that it has invested billions of dollars in technology and deployed thousands of employees to fight financial crime.

Place in the history of Treasury fines

The decision became the third-largest fine ever imposed by the US Department of the Treasury. Only larger were an agreement of roughly $4 billion (€3.41 billion) with the crypto exchange Binance in 2023 and an agreement of roughly $3 billion (€2.56 billion) with Canada-based TD Bank a year later. Both deals were part of the Biden administration's efforts to combat money laundering and improve compliance in the crypto industry. In 2024, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform; prosecutors said it was used to transfer funds linked to child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October 2025.