American Express faces $350 million penalty from OCC over AML failures
On Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board issued enforcement actions against American Express, levying a $350 million civil money penalty on its bank subsidiary. The OCC also cited systemic breakdowns in suspicious activity monitoring that allowed roughly $13 billion of suspected money laundering to flow through the card network over the past decade.
The Fed issued a separate cease-and-desist order to American Express and its travel‑related services arm. An Amex regulatory filing noted that part of the penalty had been reserved in prior periods and would not affect its full‑year 2026 guidance. The filing added that the consent orders are not expected to alter the company’s 2027 outlook, and an Amex spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The OCC stressed that institutions of American Express’s scale need to devote sufficient resources to AML compliance to safeguard economic and national security.
“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,” Jonathan Gould, Comptroller of the Currency said.
What we know
American Express National Bank was hit with a cease-and-desist order and a $350 million civil money penalty by the OCC,
Additionally, Amex experienced “systemic breakdowns” in its suspicious activity monitoring and reporting processes, resulting in roughly $13 billion of suspected money laundering activity over the past 10 years, the OCC said.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board concurrently issued enforcement actions against American Express and its subsidiaries Thursday over failures in their anti-money laundering programs.
An Amex regulatory filing Thursday said that a portion of the civil money penalty was “reserved for in prior periods and it does not impact the full-year 2026 guidance.”
The consent orders are not anticipated to affect Amex’s 2027 guidance, according to the filing.