Bank of America hit with $1.2 billion penalty over money laundering failures

[Chibit01]

Bank of America hit with $1.2 billion penalty over money laundering failures

Regulators fined Bank of America (BAC) more than $1.2 billion on Tuesday over widespread failures in the banking giant's safeguards against money laundering and other illicit financial activity.

The Treasury Department said the nation's second-largest bank failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and to report more than $5 billion in suspicious activity, including transactions potentially tied to Chinese money-laundering networks, narcotics trafficking, and fraud.

The enforcement actions include a $1.2 billion penalty from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the third-largest fine in the Treasury Department's history

I thought with the way regulators are chasing after privacy tools like and mixer, coinjoin, and it's against whatever that falls under their definition of money transmitter that the banking sector is total immune to money laundering, but here we are America's 2nd largest bank being fined $1.2 billion dollars for allowing their bank to be used in laundering money linked to trafficking and fraud, are they going to regard some money that comes from Bank of America as tainted fiat? As they would be quick to condemn the bitcoin mixer if that was the case here, It's always a different story and handled differently when Bitcoin and a mixer are involved.

[adultcrypto]

I thought with the way regulators are chasing after privacy tools like and mixer, coinjoin, and it's against whatever that falls under their definition of money transmitter that the banking sector is total immune to money laundering, but here we are America's 2nd largest bank being fined $1.2 billion dollars for allowing their bank to be used in laundering money linked to trafficking and fraud, are they going to regard some money that comes from Bank of America as tainted fiat? As they would be quick to condemn the bitcoin mixer if that was the case here, It's always a different story and handled differently when Bitcoin and a mixer are involved.

The fight against privacy sometimes does appear like "giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it". This post have exposed some of those financial institutions because most of the things they accuse bitcoin of are happening through their fiat systems. When they say that bitcoin is used by criminals, drug traffickers and for many other illicit activities, I begin to wonder if these things suddenly appeared because of the creation of bitcoin. They have been happening through their fiat systems just that bitcoin just provided another alternative to some of them but that does not mean that is what bitcoin was exclusively created for. Bitcoin has once again been vindicated.

[NotATether]

A slap on the wrist!

Bank of America's net profit last year, after taxes, was $30.5B.

It's profits in the last quarter alone (Q2) were $9.1B.

This fine will not hurt them in any way, it is just "the cost of doing business" as they call it.

To put that into perspective, they make around $1.2 billion in just 2 weeks on average.

Oh and also, today, in about 5 hours, they are going to release their Q3 reports.

Bank of America to Report Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Host Investor Conference Call on October 14

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina N.C. – As previously announced, Bank of America will report its third quarter 2026 financial results on Wednesday, October 14. The results will be released at approximately 6:45 AM a.m. Eastern ET, followed by an investor conference call at 8:30 AM a.m. Eastern ET.

The news release, supplemental filing and investor presentation can be accessed at Bank of America’s Investor Relations website at https://investor.bankofamerica.com/quarterly-earnings. A Form eight K8-K containing Bank of America’s financial results will also be available at the U SU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at https://www.sec.gov.

How convenient for the stock price, isn't it?

[_act_]

There are billions of dollars that are laundered through the banks every time. Let me make it more accurate, there are billions of dollar of money laundering that are getting into banks annually.

The government have been very lenient towards the banks always. They will say the banks follow the AML policies.

It is very good that Bank of America  will be fined.

[Majestic-milf]

 And here I thought these people can't be hit with such verdicts. Hell, I thought it was only Bitcoin they use for laundering activities, right? See, BAC gets into trouble, just because these regulators don't want to look like they can't mete punishment for the bank's failure to adequately checkmate money laundering activities going on under it's nose. For the US Treasury department, this is the third largest penalty in the history, but according to what NotATether pointed, it's just very minor, compared to what they earn. This is just bullshit to me.

[ABCbits]

I thought with the way regulators are chasing after privacy tools like and mixer, coinjoin, and it's against whatever that falls under their definition of money transmitter that the banking sector is total immune to money laundering

Cryptocurrency along with it's privacy feature/tool attract lots of attraction. But any competent government worker or agency know most big scale of money laundering still use same old method.

The government have been very lenient towards the banks always. They will say the banks follow the AML policies.

But what other choice government have? Give higher fines? Close the bank?

[Catenaccio]

Cryptocurrency along with it's privacy feature/tool attract lots of attraction. But any competent government worker or agency know most big scale of money laundering still use same old method.

Biggest scale of money laundering is through bank system that is bigger than cryptocurrency industry so it has been the most favorite choices of criminals to launder money through banks than in blockchain and cryptocurrency.

There is change in favorite tool with more scams and money laundering in cryptocurrency but it's still very smaller than what happen in bank system.

Crypto crime and sanctions 2026 report.

[Jubilee58]

This news doesn't really go well with the bank of America. Anything money laundering is bad, and is one of the things that can cause havoc, and affect the economy of a nation negatively. Am not from America anyway, this kind of corrupt practices is also rampant in my own country, and causes the economy to fall instead of growing. When the banking sector is no longer trusted, the financial aspect of an economy is really in jeopardy, but another good thing is that there is a regulatory body that is really checkmating the activities of this banks. With this regulatory body, the banking industry will operate with caution knowing fully well that there is an eye on them.
The penalty of $1.2 billion on the bank of America is indeed a disciplinary measures to eliminate such corruption in the banking system so far America is concern.

[knowngunman]

Cryptocurrency along with it's privacy feature/tool attract lots of attraction. But any competent government worker or agency know most big scale of money laundering still use same old method.

Biggest scale of money laundering is through bank system that is bigger than cryptocurrency industry so it has been the most favorite choices of criminals to launder money through banks than in blockchain and cryptocurrency.

There is change in favorite tool with more scams and money laundering in cryptocurrency but it's still very smaller than what happen in bank system.

Crypto crime and sanctions 2026 report.

Banks still remain the most convenient way to launder money because they move trillions daily and that make it easier. The funny part of it is we only know the ones they want us to know because they can always cover their tracks from the public if they want to because they control the ledger. They may decide to settle behind close doors and delete the record but with blockchain lol. They blame crypto for money laundering just to distract people because they know it's transparent and they can not hide behind it.

But what other choice government have? Give higher fines? Close the bank?

They won't close the bank because it'll affect their economy. Bank of America is too big to fail. Government won't obviously close it. Government gives them the ground to operate that way and the worst case is a fine they can always afford to pay only small banks suffer.

[Chibit01]

I thought with the way regulators are chasing after privacy tools like and mixer, coinjoin, and it's against whatever that falls under their definition of money transmitter that the banking sector is total immune to money laundering

Cryptocurrency along with it's privacy feature/tool attract lots of attraction. But any competent government worker or agency know most big scale of money laundering still use same old method.

That's not even arguable. We know, and they also know where the real money laundering is happening just a small piece compared to the total money laundered yearly passage through crypto. The banking sector has always been their home.

But what other choice government have? Give higher fines? Close the bank?

Try to pretend at least they are working and don't make it very obvious that they are against cryptocurrency and privacy, even when I know it's not possible, I was expecting the same type of punishment they give to the mixer when found guilty. "shut it down."

[YOSHIE]

It's always a different story and handled differently when Bitcoin and a mixer are involved.

That's what we often hear, when a bank like Bank of America, fails to stop or prevent money laundering and is detected with various suspicious transactions, strangely, mixer sites and Bitcoin are always made the scapegoats.

In fact they know the root of the problem:

Root of the Problem: Regulators found that the bank had not adequately carried out its compliance obligations (AML / Anti-Money Laundering) for years, including negligence in checking foreign financial institution accounts and monitoring suspicious activity from customers.

Banks should be aware and understand why suspicious transaction situations can occur in banks, they should improve bank management in systemic compliance, Ensure that risk management personnel are placed in these positions who really have expertise in the related fields, so that no suspicious foreign correspondence accounts occur at a particular bank.
Don't blame Mixers or Crypto.

[Coyster]

From the source in the OP:

FinCEN said Bank of America admitted to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and had effectively outsourced substantial portions of its suspicious activity detection responsibilities to law enforcement and other financial institutions.

Lol, so it is not a case of an oversight, they purposely didn't report these suspicious transactions, even though they knew it was coming from shady sources. It is similar to what Binance was guilty of a couple of years ago. These big institutions are all about their revenue, they know the authorities would get to them someday, but they know the profits accrued from these willful violations would be greater than the fines they would eventually face.

The bank also prioritized revenue over compliance resources, according to Treasury, allowing suspicious transactions to go uninvestigated for extended periods.

In their opinion, revenue > compliance.

[Fortify]

Regulators fined Bank of America (BAC) more than $1.2 billion on Tuesday over widespread failures in the banking giant's safeguards against money laundering and other illicit financial activity.

I thought with the way regulators are chasing after privacy tools like and mixer, coinjoin, and it's against whatever that falls under their definition of money transmitter that the banking sector is total immune to money laundering, but here we are America's 2nd largest bank being fined $1.2 billion dollars for allowing their bank to be used in laundering money linked to trafficking and fraud, are they going to regard some money that comes from Bank of America as tainted fiat? As they would be quick to condemn the bitcoin mixer if that was the case here, It's always a different story and handled differently when Bitcoin and a mixer are involved.

This is honestly a dismally small amount and just goes to show that you can break the law without much consequence if you're big enough.  It's made barely a dent in a fraction of the earnings they make in a single quarter and they're probably relieved to have gotten away with it as the profits will likely be much higher. I was curious about what were the the biggest banking fines given out by the US up into this point and it seems like this is the top 5:

#1 - TD Bank ($3.09 billion, 2024)
#2 - Goldman Sachs ($2.9 billion, 2020)
#3 - HSBC ($1.9 billion, 2012)
#4 - Bank of America ($1.2 billion 2026)
#5 - Standard Chartered ($1.1 billion, 2012/2019)

The fact that 3 out of 5 of these banks are not American yet get the disproportionately sized fines (remember to adjust for inflation) compared to their market cap just shows how biased the regulator can be and favorable to their banks, it's actually a form of corruption by itself.

[EluguHcman]

Bank of America hit with $1.2 billion penalty over money laundering failures

The Treasury Department said the nation's second-largest bank failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions and to report more than $5 billion in suspicious activity, including transactions potentially tied to Chinese money-laundering networks, narcotics trafficking, and fraud.

The enforcement actions include a $1.2 billion penalty from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the third-largest fine in the Treasury Department's history

Such incident could also be as business as usual where certain bank officials can collide with the third parties and give them the pass keys or any means that the scammers can break into the banks securities or Privacies just to have access to their banking network server.

It is also no more news that companies or organization and the banks officials who are of their selfish evil minds do sells companies and customers datas out and as well leaks tangible secrets that are liable to compromise the database of the company.
We can as well see how the bank according to this report had been ignorant to keep updated and comprehensive records of the the transactions being executed under their watch in the bank.

My question now is, whether is that bank of America being an individual own or government own facilities because I am also wondering who pays the price of the penalty because I know that both the law enforcers and the banks are the same of the government departments.

[Die_empty]

Such incident could also be as business as usual where certain bank officials can collide with the third parties and give them the pass keys or any means that the scammers can break into the banks securities or Privacies just to have access to their banking network server.

It is also no more news that companies or organization and the banks officials who are of their selfish evil minds do sells companies and customers datas out and as well leaks tangible secrets that are liable to compromise the database of the company.
We can as well see how the bank according to this report had been ignorant to keep updated and comprehensive records of the the transactions being executed under their watch in the bank.

This is not a case of bank officials giving out sensitive information to scammers. It is a bank deciding to prioritize profit over compliance with statutory laws. Bank of America knew that they were facilitating illegal transactions, but it continued because of profits.

My question now is, whether is that bank of America being an individual own or government own facilities because I am also wondering who pays the price of the penalty because I know that both the law enforcers and the banks are the same of the government departments.

The bank is a publicly traded corporation and not owned by the government (maybe the name Bank of America is confusing you). It is owned by its various shareholders. The government bank in the US is the Federal Reserve.

[fruktik]

The fight against privacy sometimes does appear like "giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it". This post have exposed some of those financial institutions because most of the things they accuse bitcoin of are happening through their fiat systems. When they say that bitcoin is used by criminals, drug traffickers and for many other illicit activities, I begin to wonder if these things suddenly appeared because of the creation of bitcoin. They have been happening through their fiat systems just that bitcoin just provided another alternative to some of them but that does not mean that is what bitcoin was exclusively created for. Bitcoin has once again been vindicated.

It’s quite strange that no one has managed to drag cryptocurrency into this story yet. )) After all, financial monitoring authorities are always accusing crypto of being used for money laundering—well, here they’ve caught someone red-handed! Who would even think of doing this—running transactions through a bank like that? It feels like this might have been part of some larger scheme. It’s not just their reputation that’s taken a hit; there’s likely more to it.

This isn’t just some random private bank; it’s the second-largest one. Regulatory bodies are always keeping a close watch there to ensure the law is upheld. Something about this whole situation just doesn’t seem quite right.

[Filicius]

The fight against privacy sometimes does appear like "giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it". This post have exposed some of those financial institutions because most of the things they accuse bitcoin of are happening through their fiat systems. When they say that bitcoin is used by criminals, drug traffickers and for many other illicit activities, I begin to wonder if these things suddenly appeared because of the creation of bitcoin. They have been happening through their fiat systems just that bitcoin just provided another alternative to some of them but that does not mean that is what bitcoin was exclusively created for. Bitcoin has once again been vindicated.

It’s quite strange that no one has managed to drag cryptocurrency into this story yet. )) After all, financial monitoring authorities are always accusing crypto of being used for money laundering—well, here they’ve caught someone red-handed! Who would even think of doing this—running transactions through a bank like that? It feels like this might have been part of some larger scheme. It’s not just their reputation that’s taken a hit; there’s likely more to it.

This isn’t just some random private bank; it’s the second-largest one. Regulatory bodies are always keeping a close watch there to ensure the law is upheld. Something about this whole situation just doesn’t seem quite right.

By its very definition, money laundering consists of carrying out actions to incorporate assets from illegal actions into legal economic traffic, and legal economic traffic nowadays cannot be understood without banks.

They continue and will continue to be the biggest launderers, even without their explicit knowledge, but that does not exempt them from taking the necessary measures to mitigate the damage to the socio-economic order.