WASHINGTON: American Express was fined US$350 million by US bank regulators after they determined that the lender's programmes to identify potential money laundering were insufficient and the company had 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 on Thursday, saying the company, primarily through its national bank, had failed to maintain a sufficient anti-money laundering compliance programme, with inadequate resources, inexperienced staff, weak training and gaps in internal controls.
A spokesperson for American Express, which did not admit or deny the regulators' findings, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
