(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare Distressed Assets takes place Oct. 4-5 in Grapevine, TX. RealShare New York takes place Oct. 12 at the Marriott Marquis.)

NEW YORK CITY-In an attempt to clean-up their balance sheets, reports show that Bank of America is in discussions to sell Merrill Lynch’s boom-year real estate investments to private-equity giant Blackstone for $1 billion, according to the Financial Times late Tuesday. Sources told the FT that the potential sale could be a move by the investment bank to reign in risky investments, bulk up capital, dispose of non-core assets and comply with the Volcker Rule under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The sale, while reportedly weeks away, would comprise between $800 million and $1 billion of unwanted property investments in the US, Europe and South America, and contains a hodgepodge of debt equity positions across the globe, sources told the FT. At the same time, the sources said the negotiations “could still fail to result in a deal.”