Impact on the firm value of financial institutions from penalties for violating anti-money laundering and economic sanctions regulations

This study examines the valuation effects of anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement actions and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) economic sanction violations on U.S. financial institutions (FIs). Using a hand-collected sample of 308 enforcement actions issued between 2000 to 2018, results show that a civil money penalty (CMP) adversely affects a bank's value in the next quarter. Neither the magnitude, nor the type of AML-OFAC violation, and neither the bank's ability to deal with an enforcement action― as proxied for by efficiency ratios and governance mechanisms―are able to moderate the adverse effect of the CMP.