American Express Fined $350 Million After Failing to Stop Billions in Suspected Money Laundering -- Barrons.com

By Anita Hamilton American Express must pay a $350 million fine from the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for failing to comply with federal bank secrecy and anti-money-laundering rules. The agency says the bank and payment card network processed $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering activity between June 2014 and May 2025. Deficiencies included "inadequate resources, including staff without sufficient expertise, systemic internal control gaps, weak independent testing," and other shortcomings, the OCC said. American Express's failures to maintain adequate processes resulted in "the bank's failures to timely identify and report significant missed suspicious activity and to provide important information to law enforcement," Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said. The OCC also issued a cease-and-desist order requiring the bank to halt its noncompliant practices. The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors issued a concurrent cease-and-desist order to address "the firm's failure to sufficiently detect and report certain suspicious activity related to.