The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 29 announced it had settled charges against Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit for failing to report multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) between April 2020 and September 2024, with Merrill Lynch agreeing to a $7.5 million fine as part of the settlement.
According to an administrative proceeding document posted on the SEC’s website, Merrill Lynch relied on Bank of America’s in-house Bank Secrecy/Anti Money Laundering program to fulfill its SAR reporting requirements to the federal regulation agency. SARs are designed to prevent instances of money laundering, fraud, or terrorist financing and are supposed to be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department within 30 days of any questionable transactions as stipulated by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970….