WASHINGTON AP – Federal regulators on Wednesday defended their proposed $33 million settlement with Bank of America over bonuses paid by Merrill Lynch. But the Securities and Exchange Commission said the bank didn’t waive attorney-client privilege, making it impossible to establish if its executives knowingly breached securities laws.

Bank of America Corp., in its own legal filing, insisted that it didn’t waive the privilege and said “there is no evidence that any individual is culpable.”