Merrill Lynch fined $12M over SARs filing failures

Merrill Lynch was assessed penalties totaling $12 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for allegedly failing to file nearly 1,500 required suspicious activity reports (SARs) over the course of a decade.

On Tuesday, the SEC and FINRA each announced fines of $6 million against the broker-dealer. The SEC also cited BAC North America Holding Co. (BACNAH), Merrill Lynch’s parent company, for its role in the alleged failures.

Following the 2009 merger between Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, BACNAH assumed responsibility for creating and implementing Merrill Lynch’s SAR policies and procedures and filing its reports, according to the SEC. During this transition, BACNAH incorrectly applied a $25,000 threshold for reporting suspicious activity, when it should have been $5,000.