American Express stock falls after OCC fines bank $350M for AML lapses

Investing.com - American Express (NYSE: AXP) shares fell almost 2% in after-hours trading Thursday after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a $350 million penalty on the company for compliance failures that led it to miss about $13 billion of suspected money laundering activity from 2014 to 2025.

The OCC said American Express's U.S. national bank subsidiary had systemic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering program, including insufficient staff expertise and training, internal control gaps and independent testing weaknesses. The bank neither admitted nor denied the findings.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said American Express failed to maintain a compliance program properly aligned with the money laundering risks of its operations. This resulted in the bank's failures to timely identify and report significant missed suspicious activity and to provide important information to law enforcement, he said.

The OCC said the bank failed to identify and report about $13 billion in suspected trade-based money laundering activity in a timely manner, including in certain instances through accounts associated with bank insiders. The Federal Reserve Board also issued a cease-and-desist order against American Express and American Express Travel Related Services.

American Express Chair and Chief Executive Stephen Squeri said the company takes its responsibility to combat financial crimes seriously and is fully committed to addressing the concerns of the OCC and Federal Reserve Board. The company said the penalty would not impact its financial outlook for 2026.

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