Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch are among five firms that will pay $4.48 million to settle regulatory claims they used funds from municipal and state bond deals to pay lobbyists, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Local authorities were unfairly asked to reimburse payments that the firms made over five years to the California Public Securities Association, a lobbying group, to help influence the state, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), which oversees securities firms, said yesterday. The firms inadequately described the fees, wrapping them into bond- underwriting expenses, Finra said. The banks, also including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, agreed to pay $3.35 million in fines and reimburse certain California bond issuers $1.13 million, according to the statement. Citigroup’s $1.28 million in sanctions were the largest, followed by Merrill’s $1.07 million.
