Bank of America Corporation finally won a judge's approval of a $150 million settlement with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the Merrill Lynch merger. This will result as the closure of the investigation of the bank's $50 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch that was being continued for over one year.

The SEC has accused Bank of America of not disclosing the heavy losses at the brokerage giant prior to the shareholder vote on the purchase.

U. S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff gave an order on Monday in Manhattan. In his order, Rakoff approved the pact but called the revised settlement far from ideal. In the order, Rakoff asked both SEC and the bank to pull the agreement and make some adjustments. He also added a provision giving the SEC a say in the hiring of the auditor. He gave both the parties the time of three days to draw up the revisions.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed the fine with Bank of America over civil charges of misleading the shareholders about Merrill's financial position and now there will not any trial on the issue. This settlement is far bigger than the regulator's initially brought proposal of $33 million settlement. That proposal was rejected by the judge in September.