After the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Bank of America (BofA) for misleading investors about the nearly $5.8 billion in bonuses it sanctioned for the Merrill Lynch executives, when it acquired Merrill, the bank has agreed to pay a $33 million fine towards the settlement of the charges.

However, while agreeing to the payment of the fine, BofA - the country's largest bank which received a bailout package by US taxpayers in 2008 - neither admitted nor denied the charges that the SEC had leveled against it.

In its lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that while BofA had saved Merrill from disintegrating with its $50 billion acquisition, it had informed its shareholders that no bonuses would be paid to the Merrill executives without their approval.

The filing further elaborated that BofA had already given Merrill a written authorization that it would pay $5.8 billion to Merrill executives as bonuses for 2008. Terming the lapse on BofA's part as "materially false and misleading," the SEC added that the payout authorized by the bank represented nearly 12 percent of the effective sale price of the deal.

Commenting on BofA's decision to pay the 'bonus' fine, company spokesman Scott Silvestri said: "Bank of America believes that the settlement represents a constructive conclusion to this issue."