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# NYDFS Fines Block Inc. $40 Million for Cash App AML Compliance Failures
- URL: https://www.theglobalbanker.com/nydfs-fines-block-inc-cash-app-40-million-aml-failures-2025/
- Published: 2025-04-10T18:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-07T14:56:45.000Z
- Description: NYDFS imposed a $40 million penalty on Block Inc. for KYC, transaction monitoring, and SAR deficiencies in its Cash App and bitcoin operations.
- Author: TGB Editorial Team
- Tags: Regulations, Americas, #archive

The New York State Department of Financial Services imposed a $40 million civil monetary penalty on Block, Inc., parent company of Cash App, on 10 April 2025, citing deficiencies in the company's anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance programme identified in NYDFS examinations covering April 2021 to September 2022\. The action by NYDFS, which regulates Block under New York's money transmission laws, covers failures across multiple components of the company's financial crime controls.

The NYDFS findings identified deficient know-your-customer procedures and inadequate transaction monitoring protocols as central failures. The regulator also found that Block's rapid growth had produced a severe backlog of transaction-monitoring alerts that it left unaddressed for a significant period, and that Suspicious Activity Reports were filed more slowly than required. Lax treatment of high-risk Bitcoin transactions, which allowed largely anonymous transactions to proceed without proper scrutiny, and inadequate customer due diligence compounded the compliance shortfalls.

#### STATE PENALTIES ADD TO EARLIER ENFORCEMENT ACTION

The NYDFS action follows a separate enforcement settlement announced in January 2025, in which Block agreed to pay $80 million to 48 state financial regulators for related BSA and AML programme failures. The two actions, combined, bring Block's total state-level penalty exposure to $120 million across a period of less than four months. 

NYDFS found that Block's policies, procedures and processes did not keep pace with the significant growth the company experienced during the period under review. The platform grew rapidly, particularly between 2019 and 2020, and Block's internal controls — including the technology systems and staffing dedicated to financial crime compliance — proved insufficient for the volume and risk profile of transactions being processed.

The BSA requires money service businesses, including those operating money transmission licences like Cash App, to maintain written AML programmes, conduct customer due diligence, file SARs, and screen customers and transactions against federal watchlists. 

#### INDEPENDENT MONITOR

The consent order requires Block to retain an independent monitor, selected by NYDFS, for at least 12 months to review its compliance programme and remediate deficiencies.