More answers sought in Bank of America and SEC settlement

There is still no approval for the $33 million settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission. A federal judge continues to refuse to sign off on it. US District Judge Jed Rakoff yesterday said he just doesn't have enough information and asked the two parties to submit further details. The SEC sued Bank of America saying it hid from shareholders the fact that it gave Merrill Lynch permission to payout up to $5.8 billion in bonuses. This was before the two companies merged. Bank of America settled with the regulator and did not acknowledge any wrongdoing. Anil Shivdasani teaches financial governance at UNC Chapel Hill. He says regulatory settlements usually don't drag on. He says, "Clearly, I would imagine from the perspective of both the US Treasury and the SEC, the perspective of Bank of America, I think they would rather have this issue behind them." Bank of America says it believes the $33 million settlement is a constructive conclusion to the issue. During the hearing before Rakoff, the bank says it demonstrated that "not a penny of tax-payer money" would go toward the settlement and that the lawsuit does not allege anyone did anything intentionally wrong.