June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will appear next month before a congressional panel looking into whether regulators pressured Bank of America Corp. to complete its takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co., a spokeswoman for the committee said.

Paulson’s appearance was confirmed today by Jenny Rosenberg, an aide to Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A date hasn’t been announced, she said. Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for Paulson, declined to comment.

The testimony may shed light on what Treasury and Federal Reserve officials did to persuade Bank of America to finish the Merrill deal after Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis said he wanted to scuttle the purchase. Republicans have said regulators exceeded their authority by threatening Lewis’s job. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is scheduled to testify at a hearing tomorrow before the same panel in Washington.

“I am not going to prejudge these issues,” Towns said in a e-mailed statement. “We are not even close to finishing the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch investigation.”

Bank of America completed the acquisition of New York-based Merrill Lynch in January without telling investors that fourth- quarter losses had spiraled beyond what Lewis expected. Regulators were concerned about damage to the financial system if the Merrill Lynch takeover was aborted and the securities firm collapsed. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank and its regulators later announced the company would get a second bailout from the Treasury to cushion Merrill’s losses.

The lender is the biggest in the U.S. by assets and deposits. Lewis testified earlier this month before the committee, where he declined to characterize statements about his possible ouster as a “threat.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net; David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 24, 2009 17:35 EDT