By Jill McLaughlin

The U.S. Treasury fined Bank of America $1.21 billion for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, the department announced Oct. 13.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network assessed the penalty for the bank’s failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border, according to the Treasury.

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

Bank of America is the second-largest bank in the United States and the sixth-largest in the world, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a treasury bureau that regulates and supervises banks and financial institutions.

“Every year, Bank of America processes hundreds of trillions of dollars in transactions across the globe,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said in a statement. “It has a high—and increasing—risk profile for money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activities.”

Almost two years ago, the bank signed an order with the agency and committed to fixing problems found in its compliance with the federal Bank Secrecy Act, Gould said.

The bank’s compliance program continues to show widespread breakdowns in internal controls, which threatens national and economic security, according to the agency.

Bank of America’s deficiencies were “unacceptable,” Gould said.

The Act requires banks, financial institutions, and some businesses to help government agencies detect and prevent money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. It requires the companies to keep records of cash purchases exceeding $10,000 and to report suspicious activity that might be criminal.

The OCC assessed a $750 million civil money penalty for the bank’s egregious and continued violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970. It is part of the $1.21 billion penalty.

According to the Treasury, the Office of Foreign Assets Control separately announced an $11.6 million settlement with the bank over violations of numerous sanctions programs on Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Aug. 20, 2026. Finn Gomez/Getty Images

As part of the $1.21 billion penalty, Bank of America agreed to admit it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by not implementing and maintaining a program to meet the regulations, not conducting due diligence for correspondent accounts for foreign financial institutions, and not filing suspicious activity reports.

Some of the bank’s failures included inadequate identification and reporting of suspicious transactions, and weak customer due diligence practices.

The Treasury claims Bank of America prioritized its revenues instead of directing resources to ensure compliance.

Instead, the bank largely relied on law enforcement inquiries and external requests by other financial institutions to detect suspicious activity, with deficient internal safeguards to meet its obligations.

“The Bank allowed suspicious activity to accumulate uninvestigated for extended periods without investigation, resulting in late reporting of limited utility to law enforcement,” the Treasury said in a statement.

The bank failed to report in a timely manner over $5 billion in suspicious transactions, with over $1 billion of this activity implicating national security-related and other priority illegal risks.

This activity included suspicious transactions to Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and potential trade-based money laundering related to the southwest border, according to the Treasury.

The Epoch Times reached out to bank officials about the penalties but did not receive a response by time of publication.