Online brokerage house E*Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC: sentiment, chart, options) got slapped today with a $1 million fine from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). ETFC was charged the hefty fee because FINRA says it has failed to establish and implement anti-money laundering policies and procedures to detect suspicious transactions.

According to FINRA, the violations took place between January 2003 and May 2007. During this time frame, E*Trade allegedly relied on its analysts and employees to manually scan for suspicious activity, rather than implementing automated tools.

ETFC has neither admitted to nor denied the allegations, but has consented to the entry of the findings. Last May, the discount broker was fined $500,000 by FINRA for failing to report new order reports and route reports.

In early action, traders are shrugging off the hefty potential fine -- ETFC is up 2.6% to trade at $1.18.