Shareholders of the nearly-bankrupt bank, Bank of America (BoFA) have been given November 12 as the deadline to claim a part of their settlement with the US securities.

The total value of the corpus is $150 million and that the bank has been accused of being involved in fraudulent practices with Merrill Lynch and many other financial institutions.

The SEC had filed a lawsuit against BoFA during last year. It said in there that the bank had failed to disclose an investment worth $3.6 billion that it did to Merrill Lynch. This money was used in issuing bonuses to the employees while it faced a loss worth $15.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2008.

Now, as a part of the settlement, BoFA will be paying $150 million as part of 'fair funds' which will then be distributed amongst the owners of BoFA. These are going to be the ones that suffered because of the wrong decisions taken by the bank.

The legality of the fund was approved on February22 itself by U. S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff.

No comment was made by the bank.