Banks around the world paid $4.5 billion in major fines in 2024, with TD Bank accounting for two-thirds of the total after it pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering federal laws.
According to data compiled by Finbold, the United States ordered banks to pay a total of $4.08 billion— 90.67% of the $4.5 billion total — across 19 penalties.
TD accounted for $3.09 billion of this after a multi-agency investigation into improper controls that enabled the Canadian lender's American subsidiary to launder illicit funds.
The bank that paid the second-largest fine of $348.2 million — JPMorgan Chase — was penalised for "an inadequate programme to monitor firm and client trading activities for market misconduct".
The UK levied the second most fines - 10 worth a total of 261.7 million. Meanwhile. British and Swedish regulators enforced the two biggest individual penalties outside the US.
In January 2024, the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority fined HSBC $74.12 million for failing to implement depositor protection. In the last months of the year, Sweden penalized Klarna Bank AB for AML violations to the tune of $46 million.
Andreja Stojanovic, report co-author, says: "While the US has levied an outsized proportion of the total value of penalties, the share of individual fines imposed in the country — 33% 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 4000 banks."