US fines Bank of America US$1.2 billion, says it violated money laundering, sanctions laws

JUST IN: US Treasury fines Bank of America $1.2 billion for allegedly violating anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws, the third-largest penalty in the department's history.

Bank of America just got hit with a 1.2 billion dollar fine. The US Treasury says the country's second-biggest bank violated anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws, and this is the third-largest penalty in the department's entire history.

The accusation is blunt. Treasury says the bank failed to catch and report what it calls priority national security risks, including Chinese money-laundering networks moving cash through the system. You're looking at the institution in question here, a bank with tens of millions of customers that apparently couldn't see what was flowing through its own pipes.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent didn't soften it either. He said when a bank this size fails on money laundering, the consequences expose the entire US financial system, and that even the biggest institutions are not above the law.

A 1.2 billion dollar fine, and the regulator saying out loud that America's second-biggest bank was a national security risk. Sit with that one.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.