Bank of America fined US$1.21 billion as US flags suspected Chinese money laundering
Por Teresa Elena Frontado — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement US-China relations China Diplomacy Bank of America fined US$1.21 billion as US flags suspected Chinese money laundering
Second-largest US bank failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions linked to Chinese money-laundering networks
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Teresa Elena Frontado in Washington Published: 1:47am, 15 Oct 2026 Updated: 2:00am, 15 Oct 2026 Bank of America , the second-largest US bank, failed to promptly report hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions bearing signs of Chinese money-laundering networks, US regulators said on Tuesday, announcing more than US$1.21 billion in penalties for broader anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said the activity included large wire transfers to counterparties in China , repeated credit-card purchases at major retailers and shipping companies, and payments towards cards held by third parties without an apparent commercial purpose.
Most of the suspected network activity involved a group of customers purporting to operate in logistics or electronics, according to a consent order. The agency said their transaction patterns were inconsistent with legitimate commercial activity for those businesses.
The China-related findings form part of a wider enforcement action against the second-largest US bank. FinCEN imposed a US$1.2 billion penalty, against which it will credit a US$750 million payment to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
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