Bank of America Corp. faced a $1.21 billion fine from regulators for money-laundering and sanctions control failures, the largest penalty ever from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The announcement, made less than 15 hours before earnings, led to a $22 billion stock drop. CEO Brian Moynihan called it a settlement to move forward.
The bank’s Event Processor system, designed in 2010 to flag suspicious transactions, had chronic issues, including high thresholds and a backlog of nearly 200,000 cases. Regulators found the bank processed 33,000 wires with inaccurate sender information. FinCEN flagged three customers involved in salvaged vehicle sales, with compliance staff raising concerns for years.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing