Mass. official plans serious charges against Merrill

BOSTON (Reuters) - Charges by Massachusetts against Merrill Lynch & Co Inc are more serious than those against Swiss bank UBS because they involved the manipulation of research of auction-rate securities, the state's top securities regulator said on Friday.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin added that he would proceed "fully" with the state's complaint that charges Merrill with fraud and "dishonest and unethical" conduct despite Merrill's plan announced on Thursday to buy back its auction-rate securities.

"In Merrill's case, it's as serious and in a sense more serious because there was a clear effort at manipulation of research which is even a greater issue than the misleading sales of these auction rate securities instruments," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

(Reporting by Jason Szep, editing by Phil Berlowitz)