The Bank of America may see hard times ahead as the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it would widen its inquiry into alleged wrongdoing at the lender. As per regulator, the bank of America misled its shareholders in a proxy statement previous year at the time of acquiring Merrill Lynch.

It may be noted here that last week a federal judge rejected a $33 million settlement and ordered fresh trial.

Judge Jed Rakoff also asked the agency that why it did not punish the executives or lawyers involved in the disclosures.

In addition, the biggest U. S. lender failed to meet Monday deadline to provide further details about the Merrill Lynch acquisition.

The regulator said in a statement, "We will vigorously pursue our charges against Bank of America and take steps to prove our case in court."

On the other hand, Bank of America said that it would pay $425 million to end program on sharing losses on bad assets.

It should be noted here that the lender and the government had agreed to share losses on a $118 billion portfolio after the acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

(Via TopNews United States. Contributed by Medha Sood)