OCC Fines American Express National Bank $350 Million Over AML Failures
Federal regulators hit American Express National Bank with a $350M penalty and cease-and-desist order for Bank Secrecy Act compliance failures.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday announced a $350 million civil money penalty against American Express National Bank, headquartered in Sandy, Utah, citing significant deficiencies in the institution's anti-money laundering compliance program and its adherence to the Bank Secrecy Act.
Alongside the financial penalty — one of the larger BSA-related enforcement actions assessed against a bank-affiliated card issuer in recent years — the OCC issued a cease-and-desist order, a formal directive that compels the bank to overhaul the identified compliance shortcomings under federal supervision.
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The Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to maintain robust internal controls designed to detect and report suspicious activity, including potential money laundering and illicit financial flows. Regulators have intensified enforcement of these requirements across the banking sector, and penalties of this scale signal a continued willingness by the OCC to hold chartered institutions accountable for program gaps.
American Express National Bank operates as the federally chartered banking arm of the broader American Express financial services enterprise. The cease-and-desist order means the bank must take corrective action satisfactory to the OCC or face additional regulatory consequences.
Continue reading at OCC News.
