Analysis
The announcement combines three agencies' actions, but the FinCEN order says the OCC's $750 million is credited against FinCEN's $1.2 billion, so the cash due is smaller than the sum of the headline figures. The orders describe problems running from at least 2018 through mid-2025 and say the bank was already under a December 2024 OCC cease-and-desist order for deficiencies. The 's required lookback and independent reviews will determine how much more activity is reported and what the bank must fix.
What was announced
On October 13, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced enforcement actions imposing more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America, which it described as the second-largest bank in the United States, for violations of and sanctions laws. Treasury called the actions the third-largest penalty in its history and the largest in the history of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). [1]
Three agencies acted. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty. The OCC, which supervises national banks, assessed a $750 million civil money penalty. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers U.S. sanctions, announced an $11.6 million settlement; its enforcement release gives the amount as $11,662,930. [1][3]
The (BSA) is the main U.S. anti-money-laundering law. It requires banks to run an AML program, check who their customers are, and file (SARs) with FinCEN when they see transactions that may involve crime. Sanctions are separate: they bar U.S. banks from dealing with people, banks and countries on government blocked lists. [2]
How the amounts relate
The figures are not simply added together. In the , FinCEN says it has "agreed to credit against the Civil Money Penalty payment of $750,000,000 to the OCC" and that the bank "shall make payment of $450,000,000 to the Department of the Treasury" for the FinCEN penalty. The OCC's release says the same: FinCEN's $1.2 billion fine "credits the OCC's $750 million penalty." [2][5]
Treasury's release states the total as "more than $1.21 billion" without showing the arithmetic. That figure is consistent with the $1.2 billion FinCEN penalty, which includes the credited OCC amount, plus OFAC's $11.66 million; this is a calculation from the published numbers, not a breakdown the sources give. Under the same reading, the amounts the bank pays would be $450 million to Treasury under the FinCEN order, $750 million under the OCC penalty and the OFAC settlement amount. [1][2][3]
What regulators found, and what the bank admitted
FinCEN's says that "Bank of America admits to the Statement of Facts and Violations" in the order and consents to its issuance. FinCEN found the bank willfully failed to implement and maintain an program that met BSA requirements, failed to carry out due diligence on correspondent accounts for foreign financial institutions, and failed to report suspicious transactions accurately and on time. A footnote says the bank admits to "willfulness" only as that term is used in civil BSA enforcement, where the government need only show reckless disregard or willful blindness rather than knowledge that the conduct broke the law. [2]
The order covers conduct from at least January 1, 2018 through July 1, 2025. It says the bank's transaction-monitoring system had gaps that led to missed and late reporting of over $5 billion in suspicious activity, with roughly $1 billion implicating national-security and other priority risks, including patterns FinCEN describes as indicative of Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and potential trade-based money laundering with a substantial connection to the southwest border. Treasury added that the bank allowed suspicious activity to accumulate without investigation for extended periods and relied heavily on law enforcement inquiries and requests from other institutions rather than its own controls. [1][2]
The OCC, the bank's primary federal supervisor, said Bank of America, N.A.'s compliance program has been "deficient and ineffective." It said the bank's transaction monitoring system failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions, causing large numbers of late , and that the bank "knew for years" it was failing to escalate potentially suspicious activity to investigators. The bank was already under a December 2024 OCC cease-and-desist order over these deficiencies; the OCC said that more than a year later the bank still had not completed many of the required steps. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould called the bank's response to its BSA deficiencies "unacceptable." The OCC said its penalty will be paid to the U.S. Treasury. [5]
Sanctions settlement and what happens next
OFAC said the bank agreed to settle potential civil liability for 475 apparent violations of sanctions programs targeting Russia, Belarus, Iran, Burma, Somalia, narcotics and global terrorism between September 18, 2021 and April 24, 2025, involving payments with a total value of about $14.8 million. OFAC said they arose from payments processed through blocked banks, alerts on exact name-and-birthdate matches to blocked persons that were not prioritized, delays in updating sanctions watchlists, and mishandled business accounts. OFAC classified the violations as non-egregious and largely not voluntarily self-disclosed and said the settlement reflected no reduction for remediation or cooperation. [3]
The FinCEN order requires the bank to hire an independent consultant to review activity from January 2022 until the bank finishes fixing its suspicious-activity monitoring, and to report any suspicious transactions that went undetected. It also requires independent reviews of the bank's monitoring, customer due diligence and foreign correspondent account programs. Treasury said the reviews will assess risks tied to the U.S. southwest border and cartels, Iran and Russia. [1][2]
A Bank of America spokesperson told Banking Dive: "Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right." The spokesperson said the bank's team is "far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators," and that third-quarter results, due October 14, will include a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion, reducing net income by about 17 cents per share. [4]
What remains uncertain
Most findings here are the regulators' own statements. The bank's admission in the FinCEN order is limited to that order's Statement of Facts and Violations and to "willfulness" as used in civil enforcement; OFAC's settlement concerns apparent violations. Treasury's total is not itemized in the sources, and the explanation above is a calculation from the published figures. The FinCEN order refers to OFAC's penalty as $11,000,000, while OFAC's enforcement release states $11,662,930. No Bank of America filing or press release was found; its statements come from Banking Dive.
Sources
- U.S. Department of the Treasury · U.S. Treasury Announces Record Enforcement Actions Against Bank of America · October 13, 2026 ↗Official release
- FinCEN · Consent Order Imposing Civil Money Penalty, Number 2026-03, In the Matter of Bank of America, N.A. ↗Official source · PDF
- OFAC · Enforcement Release: Bank of America, N.A. Settles with OFAC for $11,662,930 Related to Apparent Violations of Multiple Sanctions Programs · October 13, 2026 ↗Official source
- Banking Dive · BofA fined $1.21B over AML · October 13, 2026 ↗Source
- OCC · News Release 2026-89: OCC Imposes $750 Million Assessment Against Bank of America for Deficient BSA/AML Compliance · October 13, 2026 ↗Official release