(27 March 2025 – Global) Banks worldwide incurred a total of $4.5 billion in major fines throughout 2024, with TD Bank responsible for two-thirds of the total after pleading guilty to breaching US anti-money laundering laws.
Data compiled by Finbold reveals that the United States imposed $4.08 billion in fines—accounting for 90.67 percent of the global total—across 19 enforcement actions. TD Bank alone was hit with $3.09 billion in penalties following a multi-agency investigation into deficiencies in its controls, which facilitated money laundering activities within its US subsidiary.
The second-largest fine of the year, $348.2 million, was imposed on JPMorgan Chase for failing to maintain an effective program to monitor firm and client trading activities for market misconduct.
The United Kingdom issued the second-highest number of fines, with 10 penalties amounting to $261.7 million. The two largest individual penalties outside the US were enforced by British and Swedish regulators.
In January 2024, the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority fined HSBC $74.12 million for failing to uphold depositor protection standards. Later in the year, Sweden’s financial regulator penalised Klarna Bank AB $46 million for anti-money laundering (AML) violations.
Commenting on the findings, report co-author Andreja Stojanovic noted: “While the US has levied an outsized proportion of the total value of penalties, the share of individual fines imposed in the country – 33 percent with 19 out of the total 57 fines recorded – is more appropriate, possibly even downscaled given the fact the country is home to more than 4,000 banks.”