As the controversy over Bank of America’s purchase last year of crisis-hit Merrill Lynch rumbles on, US regulators said BofA has agreed to waive legal privileges linked to its purchase of the firm, media reports said.

The decision by BofA means that the bank could be forced to disclose what it knew when it bought Merrill Lynch. The takeover, officially completed in January this year, has created the world’s biggest wealth manager.

The announcement was issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agreement is still subject to court approval. It will, if approved, allow the SEC to examine more details concerning BofA’s failure to disclose information to shareholders about Merrill’s performance and pending losses.

When BofA bought Merrill Lynch, it happened against a background of massive US government bailouts of banking and other financial institutions such as mortgage lenders Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG, and a number of Wall Street banks.

Critics of the BofA/Merrill Lynch takeover have complained that BofA shareholders were not made fully aware of the scale and extent of the brokerage’s financial problems in the weeks leading up to the transaction.