Bank Of America To Pay $7.7M SEC Fine For 2009 Accounting Error

Bank of America will pay $7.65 million to settle charges related to a billion-dollar accounting error it made five years ago.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the bank had been miscalculating its regulatory capital, which led to a $4 billion overstatement it made when acquiring a portfolio from Merrill Lynch in 2009, according to a report in the New York Times.

The mistake carried over every year, and the bank reported the problem only in April 2014, after which it cooperated fully with investigators.

“Bank of America self-reported its regulatory capital overstatements, remediated the issues quickly and cooperated in our investigation,” SEC Director of Enforcement Andrew Ceresney said in a public statement. “This penalty reflects credit for that cooperation, which allowed us to conduct our investigation efficiently and effectively.”

According to Reuters, this is the second SEC settlement in recent months related to transactions made during the financial crisis. Last week, Barclays paid $15 million for mistakes made when its U.S. operation took over Lehman Brothers after its collapse in September 2008.