Bank of America has been fined $1.2 billion (£910 million) for failing to detect potential money laundering and other illegal activities, as announced by the US Treasury Department on Tuesday. The banking giant did not report over $5 billion in suspicious activity to the government, with $1 billion of that posing national security and illicit finance risks.
Key Failures
The Treasury highlighted that these failures included not flagging transactions that possibly involved Chinese money laundering networks or trade-based laundering with a substantial connection to the southwest border.
“"Our team is far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators," Bank of America stated in an email to the BBC.
The announcement of the fine came less than 24 hours before Bank of America was set to announce its quarterly earnings on Wednesday morning. The bank indicated that its third-quarter results would include a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion, impacting net income by approximately 17 cents per share.
Remediation Efforts
Bank of America added, "We have already dedicated substantial personnel and resources to our ongoing remediation efforts, and those costs are in the current expense base."
