Monday, 23rd November 2009

 

4 August 2009 - Press Briefing

BofA strikes $33m settlement with SEC over Merrill bonuses case

Bank of America has paid $33m (€22.9m) to resolve a civil lawsuit accusing it of keeping investors in the dark about billions of dollars in bonuses pledged to Merrill Lynch staff in the wake of its acquisition of the embattled firm last year, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

In a court complaint filed on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that BofA had already "contractually authorised" Merrill to award as much as $5.8bn in bonuses - something which, the regulator claimed, was never shared with shareholders voting on the deal.

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing in settling the lawsuit, BofA described the pact with the SEC as a "constructive conclusion" to the issue, as per the WSJ report.

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Brummel

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Banks have never been shy of firing staff at the merest whiff of a downturn. First the fat, then the muscle and finally the bone. In the past, cuts have been so deep that firms have found it hard to benefit when the markets rebounded, paying over the odds to restaff at speed. Such wild oscillations in staffing numbers are known as “doing a Merrill”.

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