Bank of America Corp. ( BAC ) is working to be released from a "secret U.S. sanction" imposed during the financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The confidential agreement restricts the bank's ability to raise dividends and forces it to get regulatory approval for other major decisions, The Wall Street Journal reported without naming its sources. Regulators are still assessing if the lender has met all the requirements to be released. The "pendulum" is swinging from "the permissive side to the highly restrictive side," a person close to the bank told The Wall Street Journal. Regulators "are super vigilant about everything."