{"text":[[{"start":10.569,"text":"The US Treasury has fined Bank of America more than $1bn for “egregious and continued” money laundering and sanctions violations, concluding it failed to properly report more than $5bn in suspicious transactions."}],[{"start":23.86,"text":"The action covered penalties for inadequately alerting transactions linked to potential Chinese money laundering networks and illicit finance around the southern US border, the Treasury said on Tuesday."}],[{"start":35.32,"text":"The penalty totals $1.2bn from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a branch of the Treasury, which includes a $750mn civil penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, one of the top US bank regulators. This is the largest such fine in the OCC’s history."}],[{"start":53.26,"text":"The Office of Foreign Assets Control also announced an $11.6mn settlement with BofA over “apparent violations of numerous sanctions programmes including on Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism”."}],[{"start":66.8,"text":"Regulators have placed BofA under a consent order that requires the bank to work with a third party to identify and report undetected suspicious transactions."}],[{"start":74.94,"text":"“Financial institutions are on the front lines of protecting our economic and national security,” said Treasury secretary Scott Bessent. “When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire US financial system to significant illicit finance risks.”"}],[{"start":95.98,"text":"The penalty is a blow for BofA on the eve of its third-quarter earnings, with its management criticised by US authorities for failing to address compliance deficiencies. The bank facilitates hundreds of trillions of dollars in payments every year."}],[{"start":109.18,"text":"In a statement, BofA said its third-quarter results on Wednesday would include a $1.2bn charge that reduces net income by 17 cents per share. It said it was “committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators”."}],[{"start":123.3,"text":"“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,” the bank said. “We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime.”"}],[{"start":135.38,"text":"The series of penalties against BofA comes as the US administration is seeking to crack down on financial crime, with a particular focus on areas it views as vital to national security, such as money laundering and the drug trade from China and Latin America."}],[{"start":150.98,"text":"BofA was placed under a cease-and-desist order in December 2024 that required it to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering programme and compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act."}],[{"start":162.26,"text":"The BSA requires banks to share records with the Treasury to help prevent money laundering and other criminal activities. A central requirement is filing Suspicious Activity Reports with law enforcement and banking regulators whenever they “know or suspect suspicious or potential criminal activity”."}],[{"start":179.62,"text":"But BofA failed to appropriately report more than $5bn worth of transactions, the Treasury said, with more than a fifth linked to security matters and areas of priority, such as “suspicious transactions indicative of Chinese money laundering networks” and “potential trade-based money laundering with a substantial nexus to the south-west border”."}],[{"start":199.9,"text":"OCC head Jonathan Gould said BofA’s “egregious and continued” violations of the BSA led the agency to impose its largest fine ever."}],[{"start":208.98,"text":"The Treasury also said BofA “did not complete many of the significant steps needed” to resolve the issues and that its compliance programme continued to have “significant breakdowns”. It accused the bank’s management of continuing “to minimise the programme’s significant deficiencies”."}],[{"start":225.78,"text":"The OCC found key compliance staff “lacked sufficient skills and expertise” and appropriate training to effectively manage the bank’s compliance programme, which led to the filing of late and inaccurate suspicious activity reports."}],[{"start":239.66,"text":"Regulators accused BofA’s management of minimising “significant deficiencies” even after the 2024 remediation plan. US President Donald Trump has publicly attacked chief executive Brian Moynihan over claims he refused him a bank account. Trump also snubbed Moynihan at a reception with other bank CEOs earlier this year."}],[{"start":260.26,"text":"Last week, the OCC similarly fined American Express $350mn for “critical deficiencies” in its compliance programme that led it to miss about $13bn of suspected money laundering activity for more than a decade."}],[{"start":279.68,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1791936252_5806.mp3"}