Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle alleged federal securities law violations involving its 2009 acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Plaintiffs attorneys called it the largest settlement of its kind to date.
A group of state and foreign pension funds sued Bank of America in 2009, accusing the company of making false statements about its health and the health of Merrill Lynch. The settlement, subject to approval by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, was announced on Friday, less than a month before a trial was scheduled to begin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
