Bank of America fined $1.2 billion for money‑laundering and sanctions compliance failures

The U.S. Treasury said Tuesday it is imposing $1.2 billion in fines on BAC for allegedly violating anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws. Banking Dive reports the full package at more than $1.21 billion: a $1.2 billion fine from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the third largest in Treasury history, plus an $11.6 million Office of Foreign Assets Control settlement covering sanctions violations tied to Iran, Russia, global terrorism and narcotics.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency assessed its own $750 million civil money penalty over what it called a "deficient and ineffective" compliance program, the largest in the regulator's 163-year history, and Treasury credited that amount toward the FinCEN fine rather than stacking it on top. Supervisors say the bank failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and kept missing suspicious activity more than a year after it signed a 2024 cease-and-desist order on Bank Secrecy Act and AML deficiencies. No asset cap was imposed.

The timing puts the penalty directly into the quarter. Bank of America said its third-quarter results will include a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion, reducing net income by about 17 cents per share. The bank reports before the open on Wednesday, Oct. 14, against a consensus EPS estimate of $1.10 in SentiSense's earnings calendar, so the headline print will need to be read with and without the charge.

What to watch: whether management frames the matter as closed or flags further remediation spending, and how the order's remedial requirements affect compliance costs over the next several quarters. A bank spokesperson said, "Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right," and pointed to billions already invested in technology and personnel. For peers, the case is a reminder that a consent order without a fine can still end in one: the 2024 order carried no monetary penalty.