Most banks spend the night before their earnings call polishing the NII slide and fudging the reserve release calculations. Bank of America will be spending it reading a Treasury press release about itself.
Just after the close on Tuesday, Treasury announced more than $1.21 billion in penalties against BofA for violating anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws. Treasury calls it the third-largest penalty in its history, and the OCC calls its piece the largest it has ever handed out. The bank admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act. It did not report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions on time, and more than $1 billion of that was tied to what Treasury calls "priority" national-security risks, including Chinese money-laundering networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.
Here is how the money breaks down, per Treasury's press release:
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $1.2 billion penalty for the Bank's failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.
The OCC assessed a $750 million civil money penalty for the Bank's deficient and ineffective BSA/AML (anti-money laundering) compliance program.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an $11.6 million settlement agreement with the Bank over apparent violations of numerous sanctions programs, including on Iran, Russia, na
