Bank of America Corp - the largest US bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached accord over alleged misstatements about the purchase of Merrill Lynch in January 2009, with BofA agreeing to pay a penalty of $150 million.

The US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York said he 'reluctantly' approved the settlement of two suits in which the SEC accused the North Carolina-based bank of misleading investors following the announcement that it would acquire Merrill Lynch. The lawsuits accused BofA of keeping shareholders in the dark about the massive losses that the bank inherited when it acquired Merrill Lynch.

Former Bank of America executives were accused of cheating investors by not disclosing mounting losses at Merrill Lynch & Co. before shareholders approved the securities firm's takeover. Suits were filed in courts and a separate investigation was conducted being conducted by SEC probing senior BofA executives' role.

Kenneth Lewis stepped down as the CEO of the bank in December last year, a year after the company took over Merrill Lynch's business. In order to compensate for the ML's BofA ultimately received $45 billion in government assistance.