NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America says it has agreed to pay $2.43billion to settle a class-action lawsuit related to its acquisitionof Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis.

In the lawsuit, shareholders alleged that Bank of America andsome of its officers made false or misleading statements about bothcompanies' financial health.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors who bought or heldBank of America stock when the company announced its plans to buyMerrill Lynch in a $20 billion deal as the banking industry andfederal regulators struggled to contain fallout from the financialcrisis in the fall of 2008.

Bank of America's deal to buy Merrill Lynch was forged on thesame September 2008 weekend that Lehman Brothers collapsed. Thetransaction came into question later after Bank of Americadisclosed that Merrill would post $27.6 billion in losses thatyear. That added significantly to Bank of America's financial woes,and the company subsequently asked for a $20 billion bailout fromthe government to help offset those losses, on top of the $25billion it had already received. It has since repaid all $45billion.

In announcing the settlement proposal on Friday, Bank of Americadenied the shareholders' allegations and said that it agreed to thesettlement to get rid of the uncertainties, burden and costsrelated to the lawsuit.

"As we work to put these long-standing issues behind us, ourprimary focus is on the future and serving our customers andclients," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in astatement.

The investors who filed the suit said the amount of thesettlement is the largest ever resolving such a claim.

"We are very pleased that the settlement will recoup asubstantial portion of the losses incurred by (Bank of America)shareholders," Brian Guthrie, executive director of theTeacherRetirement System of Texas, said in a statement. "Themagnitude of the recovery reinforces the important role thatpension funds play when they serve as lead plaintiffs in securitiesactions."

The settlement still needs court approval and will be reviewedby Judge Kevin Castel of U.S. District Court for the SouthernDistrict of New York.

As part of the settlement, the bank has also agreed to adoptseveral corporate governance policies until Jan. 1, 2015. Thesepolicies include those related to majority voting in board memberelections, annual disclosure of noncompliance with stock ownershipguidelines, policies for a board committee regarding futureacquisitions, the independence of the board's compensationcommittee and its compensation consultants and conducting an annual"say-on-pay" vote by shareholders.

The bank said Friday that it will pay for the settlement withexisting litigation reserves and about $1.6 billion in litigationexpense that will be recorded in its third quarter. The companycautioned that this expense, coupled with some other charges, isexpected to lower its third-quarter earnings by about 28 cents pershare.

Bank of America will report its third-quarter financial resultson Oct. 17.

Shares of Bank of America Corp., which is based in Charlotte,N.C., fell 9 cents to $8.88 in morning trading Friday. It sharespeaked for the past year at $10.10 on March 19 and traded as low as$4.91 in mid-December 2011.