BofA to Pay $7.65 Million SEC Penalty Over Capital Overstatements

Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $7.65 million to settle U.S. regulatory claims that it overstated its capital by billions of dollars after failing to report losses tied to its 2009 purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Bank of America misreported its capital from 2009 to 2013 because it didn’t realize losses on a portfolio of structured notes and other financial products it acquired in its purchase of Merrill Lynch, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement today.

Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan, who has led the bank since 2010, has been working for years to resolve headaches inherited with the purchases under his predecessor of Merrill Lynch and mortgage-lender Countrywide Financial Corp. during the financial crisis. After discovering the capital overstatements in April, the bank disclosed them in a regulatory filing and cooperated with the SEC’s investigation, the agency said.

“The federal securities laws require all public companies to maintain accurate books and records as well as a system of internal accounting controls,” said Michael Osnato, chief of an SEC enforcement unit that focuses on complex financial instruments.