American Express fined $350 million by US regulators

Federal regulators fined American Express $350 million after uncovering widespread, systemic failures in its anti-money laundering monitoring systems. The penalties follow parallel enforcement actions issued on October 8, 2026, by both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve to address long-standing compliance weaknesses.

According to the OCC, monitoring breakdowns permitted roughly $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering to move undetected through American Express over the past decade. Regulators stated that systemic gaps routinely prevented the institution from evaluating and reporting potentially illegal transactions on time.

American Express disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had already reserved a portion of the civil penalty in prior accounting periods. As a result, the settlement will not affect the company's full-year 2026 financial guidance or require changes to its operational targets. Management also stated that ongoing remediation costs are not expected to harm its long-term financial trajectory or its outlook for 2027.

The consent orders do not impose any asset cap or structural growth curbs on the New York-based financial firm. Shares of American Express fell nearly 2% in after-hours trading following the announcement.