Bank of America Corp has agreed to hand over to investigators documents describing the legal advice it received related to its purchase of Merrill Lynch, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The move comes after months of resistance to turning over the documents, the report said, noting that bank officials have cited attorney-client privilege when refusing to discuss the legal advice it received.

The Journal said the new approach is intended to relieve pressure on Bank of America and move it toward settling various investigations of the bank in the wake of its Merrill purchase, according to the people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, Bank of America's board voted to waive privilege on Friday and notified New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office that it would be handing over the documents on Monday.

It said the bank will likely hand over documents to federal, state and Congressional officials investigating Bank of America. The documents should include emails and memos between Bank of America and its outside law firm Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz, as well as communication between Merrill and its counsel, Shearman & Sterling.

Bank of America executives said their decisions on what to disclose to shareholders about the Merrill deal was based on the advice of lawyers, the paper said.

A Bank of America spokesman could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Michael Erman; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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