Merrill settles Massachusetts dispute
Written on August 25, 2008
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin says Merrill Lynch & Co. had agreed to settle a case involving its sale of auction-rate securities and the brokerage would soon begin buying back the illiquid securities.
Galvin said Thursday the deal calls for the New York-based investment bank to buy back on Oct. 15 all illiquid auction rate securities from investors who have less than $3 million on deposit. He said Merrill agreed to buy back auction-rate securities from larger investors in January payday loans in 1 hour.
Massachusetts had said Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) misled investors about how safe the securities were.
The investment firm had no comment on the deal.
Merrill Lynch still faces a separate enforcement action from the New York attorney general.
Filed in: economics.