Consumers love Bank of America because it’s everywhere. You can find a Bank of America ATM or location virtually anywhere in the country, and that makes banking simple. However, when you are a bank of this magnitude, it’s virtually impossible not to end up paying hefty fines for violating the strict and stringent SEC rules. Here are five of the biggest fines BoA has paid to the SEC.
$150 million
In 2010 the bank was fined $150 million by the SEC relating to not reporting specific bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employee throughout the year. The accusation is that Bank of America misled investors as it was in the process of an acquisition to overtake Merrill Lynch at the time.
$137 million
In 2010, the bank agreed to pay fines and settle charges alleging that they’d rigged bids in some of their business ventures. The allegations included rigging bids in the muni-bond market, which cost the bank millions of the money it made off the charges.
$315 million
Merrill Lynch is owned by Bank of America, and the company was fined in 2011 for some of the federal housing market crisis from a few years prior. The allegations stated that the company misled investors about the exceptional risk they were taking with some specific mortgage-backed securities in prior years.
$410 million
In 2011, consumers accused the bank of providing false balance information so that some clients would spend additional monies and end up paying serious overdraft fees. The customers believed they had more money than they did when the bank would provide these false balances, leading them to spend more and actually overspend, and pay exorbitant overdraft charges. The bank settled after the SEC agreed.
$4.5 billion
In 2009, Bank of America paid a $4.5 billion fine as stated by the SEC for making excessive misrepresentations to consumers regarding the safety of some of its auction-rate securities. There was also question about the liquidity of some of the bank’s assets during this time, and the bank decided to pay the fine and not take the accusations to court.
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