American Express Fined $350m Over AML Failures

American Express has been fined $350 million by US banking regulators over extensive deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (AML) controls and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) processes in the past decade.

Investigators found the bank had failed to adequately identify and report approximately $13 billion in suspected money laundering activity over almost 11 years.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed the civil money penalty on American Express National Bank, while the U.S. Federal Reserve issued separate cease-and-desist orders against American Express and its travel-related services subsidiary. The enforcement actions follow findings of systemic weaknesses in the company’s financial crime compliance program.

According to the OCC, American Express devoted insufficient attention to the risks associated with its substantial credit and charge card operations. Regulators also identified inadequate staffing, gaps in internal controls, and shortcomings in employee training and customer due diligence. The stated failures affected the bank’s ability to detect and subsequently report potential trade-based money laundering.

Meanwhile, American Express said it had identified weaknesses through internal and external reviews and was working to address regulators’ concerns. Chief executive Stephen Squeri said the company was “fully committed” to improving its compliance program, adding that further work remained.

Squeri added that the penalty and associated compliance costs were not expected to affect its financial guidance for 2026 or 2027, noting that part of the fine had already been reserved in previous periods. The company did not admit or deny the regulators’ findings.