The second of two U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuits against Bank of America Corp over the Merrill Lynch & Co takeover may be ready for trial as soon as this summer, with a trial on the first lawsuit set to begin on March 1.

District Judge Jed Rakoff, who presides in both cases, on Friday set a final pre-trial conference in the second case for June 29. No trial date has been set.

The SEC in the second case accused the largest U.S. bank of failing to disclose billions of dollars of losses at Merrill before shareholders voted on the merger in December 2008.

In the first case, the SEC accused Bank of America of misleading shareholders about $3.6 billion of bonuses that Merrill paid out even as it racked up a $15.8 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The merger closed on January 1, 2009.

Rakoff had refused to let the SEC add its allegations over the losses to its original lawsuit over the bonuses, saying it would be unfair to the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank to do that so close to trial. The regulator then filed its second lawsuit on January 12.

The judge has regularly faulted some of both sides' arguments in the litigation, and in September rejected the SEC's $33 million settlement with the bank over the bonuses.

A conference in the bonuses case is set for Wednesday.

I don't want the week to go without seeing you folks, Rakoff said jokingly as Friday's conference ended.

Bank of America shares closed down 19 cents at $15.18 on the New York Stock Exchange. They have fallen 55 percent since the bank announced plans to buy Merrill on September 15, 2008.

The cases are titled SEC v. Bank of America Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. The case about the bonuses is No. 09-6829, and the case about the losses is No. 10-0215.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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