Filed under: Analyst reports, Deals, Management, Law, Marketing and advertising, Scandals, Bank of America (BAC)Bank of America agreed to pay $26 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it allowed its traders access to analyst upgrades and downgrades before they were public and issued fraudulent reports on companies including Intel. The SEC also charged that from 1999 to 2001, Bank of America equity analysts were encouraged to provide favorable coverage of companies that had an investment banking relationship with the company.This, along with a recent study showing that analysts may be fudging their track records, should be enough to discourage investors from paying any attention to the analysts, as if the fact that they're usually wrong (pdf download link) wasn't a good enough reason ...