Bank of America on Tuesday was ordered to pay $1.2 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department after the agency said the company violated anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
\n\nThe penalty is the third-largest ever in Treasury history, the agency said. As part of that total, the bank was ordered to pay $750 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest-ever fine levied by the OCC.
\n\n“Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institution are not above the law,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
\n\nAs the second-largest bank in the country, Bank of America has more than 70 million clients and processes about $4.5 trillion in payments for individual customers each year.
\n\nAdditionally, the bank handles $450 trillion in payments for corporate customers, including payrolls, corporate credit cards and supplier payments.
\n\nThe Treasury Department said Bank of America “admits that it willfully violated” the Bank Secrecy Act and “failed to maintain” an anti-money laundering program that met minimum requirements under the law. The bank also admitted to having failed to file mandatory Suspicious Activity Reports.
\n\n“Bank of America failed to timely report to FinCEN over $5 billion dollars in suspicious…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business