The OCC and Federal Reserve Board issued concurrent enforcement actions against American Express and subsidiaries on October 8, 2026, over anti-money laundering program failures.
American Express National Bank received a cease-and-desist order and a $350 million civil money penalty from the OCC. American Express and its travel-related services arm received a Fed cease-and-desist.
The OCC said the bank subsidiary failed to tailor its BSA/AML risk assessment to business activities, overweighting narrow demand deposit products versus dominant credit and charge card risks.
Amex had “systemic breakdowns” in suspicious activity monitoring and reporting, with roughly $13 billion of suspected money laundering activity over the past 10 years per the OCC.
The Fed called AML issues enterprise-wide but especially at the national bank subsidiary.
Comptroller Jonathan Gould said banks of Amex’s size must devote sufficient resources to AML compliance critical to economic and national security.
CEO Stephen Squeri said Amex takes combating financial crimes seriously, has strengthened controls and worked with law enforcement, and that a portion of the penalty was reserved in prior periods without impacting full-year 2026 guidance; consent orders are not expected to affect 2027 guidance.
Story marked developing by Banking Dive.