American Express fined $350 million over money laundering controls failure

American Express National Bank agreed to pay a $350 million fine after US regulators identified severe anti-money laundering compliance failures, according to reports from Protos, PYMNTS.com, Reuters, and Yahoo Finance. Protos reported that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a consent order against the bank for failing to maintain an effective Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering program. PYMNTS.com reported that the Federal Reserve was also involved in the enforcement action. [1][2][3][4]

Protos reported that the bank processed approximately $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering between June 2014 and May 2025. According to Protos, these illicit transactions included activity routed through accounts associated with bank insiders. AML Intelligence reported that the $13 billion in missed illicit flows has raised questions regarding board oversight at the financial institution. [1][6]

American Express is a multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment cards, with headquarters located in Lower Manhattan. The company was originally founded in March 1850 as an express freight business by Henry Wells, William G. Fargo, and John Warren Butterfield before expanding into financial products. [7][8]

In the wake of the regulatory penalties, market performance reflected investor caution. The Cryptonomist reported that American Express stock closed at $308.17, falling below all three of its daily exponential moving averages. [5]