Overview
Over the past several years, financial regulators have increased
their focus on financial institutions' Anti-Money Laundering
(AML) regulatory compliance. Since the Patriot Act was enacted at
the end of 2001, US regulators have imposed more than $5 billion in
monetary penalties against financial institutions in connection
with alleged violations of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and other AML
regulations. As shown in the figure below, since the end of the
financial crisis, there has been a notable increase in the size of
penalties, in both absolute terms and as a share of firm capital.
Two-thirds of all formal enforcement actions since 2012 have
included monetary penalties, compared to less than half from 2002
through 2011. Additionally, 80% of the approximately $5.2 billion
in monetary penalties imposed since 2002 have been levied since
2012.
