Now Bank of America BAC.N Merrill Lynch, one of the founding signers of the truce, is taking steps to erode the agreement, industry lawyers say. The bank is making it harder for brokers to take some of their clients with them when they leave Merrill Lynch—specifically, clients that were referred to the broker by a Bank of America branch. Brokers in recent months have been asked to sign contracts saying that if they leave Merrill Lynch, they can’t take the names or phone numbers of those customers with them, because those clients belong to the bank.