By: Rachel Louise Ensign
Wells Fargo and Bank of America Merrill Lynch unit agreed to pay a combined $60 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission probes into the accounts that hold cash for some of their wealth-management clients, the agency said Friday. Investors often have some incidental cash in their brokerage accounts, including from dividends and interest on their holdings. Many firms automatically put that money into so-called sweep accounts that pay very low interest rates.