Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the U.S., was ordered on Tuesday to pay $1.2 billion for failing to comply with money laundering and sanctions laws. The penalty is the third-largest in the history of the Treasury Department.
Federal regulators said the bank failed to adequately monitor its accounts for potentially illegal activity, waving through suspicious transactions without proper care. Specifically, the bank failed to properly report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions.
The action by the Treasury Department was announced less than a day before Bank of America reports its quarterly earnings.