Bank of America fined US$1.21 billion as US flags suspected Chinese money laundering

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).