WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history.
“When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”
Not making excuses, but gross profit doesn’t account for a bunch of other business expenses. Yearly net profit is more like $30B. That makes the fine ~4%.
The profits are still criminally high and the fine is criminally low, but it should be compared to net.
I think that the fine should represent the actual profit over the lifetime of the offence with a penalty surcharge.
That way the fine represents “crime doesn’t pay”, rather than “crime penalties are a rounding error”.