Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, has imposed a record fine of €45 million ($51.8 million) on US banking giant JPMorgan Chase for failures related to anti–money laundering compliance.
BaFin said on Thursday that JPMorgan “systematically failed to submit suspicious activity reports in a timely manner” between October 2021 and September 2022, breaching its supervisory obligations under German financial law. The regulator confirmed that the penalty, calculated based on the bank’s turnover, is the largest it has ever issued.
Financial institutions are legally required to file suspicious activity reports whenever they identify potentially illicit transactions in customer accounts.
A JPMorgan spokesperson acknowledged the fine, saying it “relates to historical findings” and stressed that the timing of the bank’s delayed filings “did not impede any investigations by the authorities.” The bank added that it remains committed to detecting and reporting financial crimes and expressed satisfaction that the matter had been “resolved and remediated.”
The fine surpasses the previous record of €39 million imposed on Deutsche Bank in 2015 for similar violations. Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank was also hit with a €23 million penalty for issues linked to the sale of derivative products in Spain and shortcomings at its Postbank subsidiary.
JPMorgan, the largest bank in the United States by assets, has a strong presence in Germany and plans to roll out its digital bank, Chase, in the country by the second quarter of 2026, following its UK launch in 2021. It will enter a competitive market dominated by fintech players such as N26, Revolut, and Trade Republic.
