Merrill Lynch Fined $425M For Misleading Investors and Misusing Their Assets

[kreslik.news]

Bank of America’s broker-dealer arm, Merrill Lynch, has agreed to pay $425 million to ‎resolve several accusations from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ‎according to two separate announcements from the agency.

The SEC said its investigation ‎found multiple types of Merrill violations involving customer protection rules and misleading investors on structured notes.‎

US watchdog accused Merrill Lynch of two sets of violations. ‎First, instead of keeping customers’ investments in a safe reserve account, from ‎‎2009 through 2012 it engaged in “complex options trades that lacked ‎economic substance, allowing freed up billions of dollars per week that Merrill ‎Lynch used to finance ... (read more)