WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board announced an enforcement action Wednesday against American Express Company, citing the financial giant's failure to sufficiently detect and report certain suspicious activity related to money laundering.
The order, posted by the central bank, targets the firm's anti-money-laundering controls — the internal safeguards meant to flag dirty money moving through the financial system. The Fed's announcement did not detail the specific transactions or amounts involved, but the action itself signals that regulators found the company's monitoring and reporting systems falling short of what the law requires.
The timing is notable: American Express is simultaneously overhauling its top risk leadership. According to a memo from Chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri shared with employees in October and reported by MarketScreener, the company is bringing in Jodi Richard as its next chief risk officer. Richard, who has spent eight years as chief risk officer at U.S. Bancorp, will join Amex in January and report directly to Squeri, according to American Banker. She will lead the company's global risk organization.
Richard succeeds Doug Tabish, who will move into a new role as president of enterprise shared services upon the retirement of Denise Pickett in February 2027, American Banker reported. Squeri called Richard "an accomplished risk executive" in the memo, noting her earlier career as a national bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and her prior role as head of operational risk and internal control at HSBC North America.
The enforcement action against Amex comes as the Fed also announced routine monetary policy steps. The Board of Governors voted unanimously to maintain the interest rate paid on reserve balances at 3.90 percent, effective October 29, 2026, and approved the establishment of the primary credit rate at the existing level of 4.0 percent, according to the Fed's implementation note issued October 28.
For American Express — a company that built its brand on premium service and customer trust — a money-laundering enforcement action is a black eye. The firm processes billions of dollars in transactions annually, and its ability to screen those transactions for criminal activity is a core obligation under federal law. When the Fed says a firm failed to "sufficiently detect and report certain suspicious activity," that means dirty money may have moved through the system without the required alarms going off.
What exactly happened — which transactions, which customers, which countries — is not spelled out in the Fed's public announcement. The order does not say whether the failure was the result of sloppy systems, understaffing, or deliberate neglect. It also does not indicate whether any individuals will face penalties. What is known is that the Fed's enforcement arm found enough of a problem to act publicly, and that Amex is now on the hook to fix it.
The company's response — installing a new chief risk officer with deep regulatory experience — suggests the firm is taking the matter seriously. Richard's background at the OCC and at HSBC, a bank that itself has a history of AML troubles, may be exactly what Amex needs. But a new face at the top does not change the underlying facts: the Fed found that American Express was not doing enough to keep illicit money out of the financial system.
For everyday Americans, the story is a reminder that the same financial institutions that market themselves as trusted partners are subject to the same federal rules as everyone else — and that when those rules are broken, the government can and does step in. The question now is whether the Fed's action will be a one-off correction or the beginning of a broader crackdown on money laundering in the payments industry.
Our Take
Money laundering is not a victimless crime. It is the lifeblood of drug cartels, human traffickers, and terrorist networks. When a major financial institution fails to detect and report suspicious activity, it is not just a paperwork problem — it is a potential open door for the worst actors in the world to move their cash through the American economy.
The Federal Reserve deserves credit for taking action. But let's be clear: this is the same federal bureaucracy that conservatives have long warned is too cozy with the big banks it is supposed to regulate. The fact that Amex had to be caught failing at basic anti-money-laundering duties raises uncomfortable questions about how many other financial giants are skating by on weak controls. The Fed's announcement did not say whether the problems at Amex were systemic or isolated, but the enforcement action itself tells you the regulators found something serious enough to act.
What we do know is that American Express is now on notice. The company is bringing in a new risk chief with a regulator's pedigree, and it will be expected to clean up its act. If it doesn't, the next enforcement action may not be so polite.
Patriots, this is why we fight for accountability. The deep state may be real, but so is the need for basic law and order in finance. The Fed's job is to keep dirty money out of the system. On Wednesday, it admitted that one of America's most recognizable financial brands wasn't holding up its end of the bargain. The question for Amex — and for every other bank — is simple: Are you going to police your own transactions, or are you going to wait for the government to do it for you?
