The biggest AML fines in 2025

2025 has been a watershed year for the enforcement of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations. The current year has witnessed an evolution in the scope, sophistication, and strategic intent of regulatory penalties, as well as an increase in the overall total of fines issued.

This article examines the largest AML/CFT fines issued in 2025 by sector, documenting the regulatory failures that led to them, the key areas that firms should address, and upcoming regulations to be aware of for the year ahead. 

AML fines in 2025

While fines are often issued several years after regulatory failures occur, these sectors faced the top AML fines in 2025:

1. Cryptocurrency – $1 billion+ in fines
2. Banking – $200 million+ in fines
3. Payments and FinTech – $160 million+ in fines 
4. Trading and brokerage – $50 million+ in fines
5. Gambling – $22 million+ in fines

1. Cryptocurrency – $1 billion+ in fines

Having received the second-highest AML fines in 2024, the cryptocurrency sector is now the primary target for global regulators in 2025, with fines exceeding $927 million in the first half of the year alone. Beyond a massive $504 million penalty levied against one of the world’s largest exchanges, other major platforms in the US and Europe faced fines ranging from €20 million to nearly $300 million. In the highest-profile case of the year, a major exchange pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and failing to maintain an effective AML program. Regulators detailed severe failings, including:

• A ‘growth at all costs’ mentality, where the platform onboarded millions of users without adequate know your customer (KYC) identity verification or sanctions screening.
• Allowing users in sanctioned jurisdictions to trade by failing to geo-block them effectively.
• A failure to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) on billions of dollars in suspicious transaction volume.

2. Banking and building societies – $200 million+ in fines

Banks across the UK and Europe faced significant penalties in 2025, with total fines estimated at over $200 million. A major building society was fined £44 million in December for systemic gaps in its financial crime controls. Across the channel, a challenger bank was fined €2.6 million for serious deficiencies in its customer risk profiles and transaction monitoring. Key failings highlighted by regulators included:

• A reliance on outdated legacy systems that failed to flag obvious suspicious patterns, such as personal accounts receiving millions in third-party payments.
• The use of siloed data, preventing a unified view across different banking products.
• Inadequate staffing to clear backlogs of transaction alerts, leading to long delays in reporting potential money laundering.

3. Payments and FinTech – $160 million+ in fines 

FinTechs and payment processors in the UK and US were hit with fines totaling over $160 million in 2025 for allowing accounts to be used for fraud and money laundering. One UK firm was fined £21 million for failing to conduct due diligence on high-risk customers, with regulators noting it had allowed customers to sign up using implausible addresses.

Further, a FinTech giant paid over $120 million in combined penalties and settlements to federal and state regulators for similar lapses, including a lack of oversight on crypto transactions. Specific failings included:

• Rapid customer acquisition outpacing compliance infrastructure, leading to supposedly frictionless onboarding at the expense of security.
• Over-reliance on automated onboarding tools with insufficient human oversight for high-risk cases.
• Failure to prevent accounts from being used by criminal networks for fraud and illicit money movement.

4. Trading and brokerage – $50 million+ in fines 

The securities and trading sector faced increased scrutiny in 2025, with fines totaling nearly $50 million globally. A popular trading app agreed to pay approximately $30 million to settle charges related to inadequate AML systems and cybersecurity failures. Regulators found the firm failed to report suspicious activity reports (SARs) promptly, particularly during periods of high market volatility when trading volumes surged. The investigations revealed:

• Compliance systems were overwhelmed by ‘meme stock’ trading surges, causing critical reporting delays.
• Compliance teams were under-resourced during market peaks, leading to a backlog of unreviewed alerts.
• A failure to transition from manual transaction monitoring to automated systems appropriate for the firm’s size.

5. Gambling – $22 million+ in fines

The gambling industry was again hit hard by regulatory enforcement action this year. Firms were variously found to have failed to: 

• Adequately consider customer, product, and geographic financial crime risks. 
• Carry out effective due diligence on customers. 
• Identify SoF for business arrangements. 

The total number could have been even higher had one firm not chosen to leave the UK market rather than pay a multi-million pound fine for serious AML breaches. Several high-profile battles between regulators and gambling firms are also due to reach their conclusion in 2026, meaning the sector could rank even higher by this time next year. 

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The AML violations with the biggest penalties

The regulatory fines issued to financial institutions globally increased by 417% in H1 2025, compared to the same period in 2024, totaling approximately $1.23 billion. This surge was driven primarily by a renewed crackdown on the digital assets sector.

A cross-sector look at 2025 reveals that specific failings consistently led to the harshest enforcement:

• Ineffective transaction monitoring: Transaction monitoring deficiencies were among the most common drivers of large fines, with firms culpable of failing to configure scenarios that could detect complex laundering typologies.
• Governance and oversight: Regulators punished firms where senior management could not demonstrate oversight of AML programs. 
• Customer due diligence (CDD) gaps: Specifically, the failure to identify ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) and SoF for high-risk clients.
• Sanctions screening failures: As geopolitical tensions rose, failure to screen against dynamic sanctions lists resulted in immediate and severe penalties.

Key changes to AML regulations in 2025

• European Union: The new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) officially began operations in Frankfurt in July 2025, marking the start of direct EU-wide supervision for high-risk entities. Stricter rules on the traceability of crypto transfers came into full force, ending anonymous transactions for compliant exchanges.
• United States: After regulatory back-and-forth over the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), only foreign entities are now mandated to report beneficial ownership information, with domestic companies exempt from these requirements.
• United Kingdom: New amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) focused on crypto-assets, lowering the threshold for ‘change in control’ notifications to 10% to align with FSMA regimes.
• Australia: Legislation was finalised to bring ‘Tranche 2’ entities (including real estate agents, lawyers, and accountants) under the country’s AML/CTF regime, with regulatory oversight beginning in 2026.

Upcoming AML regulations to look out for

• Expansion of regulated sectors: From mid-2026, lawyers, accountants, and real estate professionals in Australia will face mandatory AML reporting obligations.
• Non-financial misconduct: In the UK, new guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), coming into force in September 2026, will explicitly link non-financial misconduct (such as bullying and harassment) to fitness and propriety assessments, impacting compliance leadership.
• AI and algorithmic transparency: Upcoming frameworks in the EU and US are expected to demand explainability for AI-driven AML decisions, requiring firms to (for example) prove why an algorithm flagged (or didn’t flag) a transaction.

How to avoid AML fines in 2026

In 2026, avoiding enforcement actions will require a proactive, technology-led approach. As part of your compliance strategy, you should: 

• Conduct dynamic risk assessments: Move away from static, annual spreadsheets. Your risk assessment should be dynamic and up-to-date, continually updating in real-time as your business expands into new markets or introduces new products.
• Invest in explainable AI: Automation is essential, but you must be able to explain to regulators the rationale behind any decision made by your AML system, which means black-box AI is a compliance liability.
• Unify your data: Ensure that your KYC, transaction monitoring, and sanctions screening systems communicate effectively with each other. Siloed data is the primary cause of missed red flags.
• Empower your compliance function: Ensure your Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) has a direct line to the board and sufficient resources to support their role, with governance failures often punished by regulators as severely as technical ones. 
• Prepare for regulatory deadlines: If you are affected by the above regulatory changes, you should start adapting your compliance framework now – waiting until the 2026 deadline will be too late.