American Express fined $350 million over anti-money laundering compliance failures

Washington: American Express was fined $350 million by US bank regulators after they determined the lender's programs to identify potential money laundering were insufficient and the company potentially missed billions of dollars in suspicious activity.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve announced the enforcement action Thursday, saying the company, primarily via its national bank, failed to maintain a sufficient anti-money laundering compliance program, including inadequate resources, inexperienced staff, weak training, and internal control gaps.

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A spokesperson for American Express, which did not admit or deny the regulators' findings, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The OCC said "systemic breakdowns" in its monitoring and reporting meant the lender failed to identify, evaluate and sufficiently report roughly $13 billion in suspicious activity over the past decade.

"The OCC expects banks of American Express's size and complexity to devote sufficient resources to ensure compliance with laws and regulations designed to detect and prevent money laundering, which are critical to both economic and national security," said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould in a statement.

Specifically, the OCC said American Express focused on risks in its relatively narrow deposit products, while not devoting sufficient attention to its much larger credit card business. The regulator also identified shortcomings in customer due diligence and identification programs.