Bank of America was hit with more than $1.2 billion in federal fines on Tuesday. Regulators said the nation's second-largest bank failed for years to report suspicious deals. They said it also failed to fix its controls against money laundering.

The biggest penalty comes from FinCEN, the Treasury office that fights financial crime. Its $1.2 billion fine is the third-largest in Treasury history, the department said. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks, set a $750 million penalty, the biggest it has ever set. That amount is counted as part of the overall total of about $1.21 billion. The sanctions office, OFAC, added a separate settlement of about $11.6 million.

Regulators said the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious deals. It did not report them on time. More than $1 billion of that money was tied to national security and other top risks, such as Chinese money laundering rings, CNBC reported. Treasury also said the bank handled payments that seemed to break sanctions on Russia, Iran and other targets.

As part of the deal, the bank admitted that it broke the Bank Secrecy Act on purpose, the New York Post reported. That law requires banks to keep strong controls and to file reports when they see suspicious activity.

"Today's actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, CNBC reported. He said the bank's failures put the whole U.S. system at risk.

The bank told CNBC that it has spent billions on its controls and is "far along" in fixing its problems. It said it will take a $1.2 billion charge in its third-quarter results, which will cut net income by about 17 cents per share.

What we know: The total is more than $1.21 billion, and the bank admitted a willful Bank Secrecy Act violation.
What we don't: Which customers or deals were behind the unreported transactions.