* Seeking documents detailing closed-door talks on merger

* Subpoena covers September-January period (Adds Fed comment in paragraph 4)

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) - A congressional committee said on Friday it has served the Federal Reserve with a second subpoena for documents related to Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.

The demand from the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was announced six days before Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify about the central's bank's role in the weeks surrounding the Jan. 1 purchase.

Edolphus Towns, the New York Democrat who chairs the panel, is seeking documents that discuss "closed-door discussions" that took place between September and January among the Fed, the Treasury Department and Bank of America.

Federal Reserve spokeswoman Michelle Smith said the Fed had received the subpoena and would respond.

Lawmakers have accused Bernanke and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson of pressuring Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America to complete the merger and not reveal Merrill's financial problems, so as to not destabilize the world's markets.

Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's chief executive, told the committee at a June 11 hearing that the bank had in December considered backing out of the merger when it learned that Merrill's losses were much larger than it expected.

Merrill would lose $15.84 billion in the fourth quarter. Two weeks after the merger closed, Bank of America accepted $20 billion of federal bailout money, and has now taken $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.