It’s baffling how $33 million can seem like a relatively small sum lately, but given that it’s all that Bank of America will have to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to inform investors about the billions in bonuses the bank paid Merrill Lynch executives during B of A’s acquisition of Merrill last year, it seems more like a light knuckle-rap than a full-on spanking.

Business Week:

The Securities & Exchange Commission sued Bank of America (BAC) on Aug. 3 for not having informed investors about bonuses the government said the nation’s largest bank agreed to pay to Merrill Lynch executives as part of the bank’s $50 billion acquisition of Merrill last January. While the SEC said that Bank of America had agreed to settle the charges and pay a fine of $33 million, the government’s action gives new ammunition to dissident investors and some Obama Administration officials in their campaign to force out Bank of America’s chief executive, Kenneth Lewis.

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