The firm said that it would either provide a credit or mail a check to more than 20,000 of its customers before the end of the year. Additionally, Merrill said it will not wait to hear from investors who have been overcharged, but will provide the refund to those customers it has found did not received the appropriate discount during its own internal investigation.
The average reimbursement, including interest, will amount to $145 per person, Merrill said. Merrills investigation showed that in about 70,000 cases since Jan.1, 2002, customers did not receive the discounts they should have gotten.
Regulators have ordered more than 450 firms to notify their customers that they may not have received the proper discounts.
