By Robert Campbell and Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - U.S. electricity regulators are
in settlement talks with Deutsche Bank over allegations the bank
manipulated the California electricity market, staff of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a filing Friday.
FERC proposed Deutsche pay a $1.5 million fine and disgorge
of $123,198 in alleged ill-gotten profits last year.
Deutsche Bank has disputed FERC's allegation that it
manipulated the market by deliberately losing money on physical
transactions to profit in derivative markets.
On Friday, FERC staff requested a seven day extension of a
filing deadline while the settlement talks were underway.
FERC caught the attention of traders with three recent cases
against big banks, though its chairman said last month the
agency is not trying to push Wall Street out of the markets.
The agency recently proposed a record $470 million fine on
Barclays also for allegedly manipulating power markets in
California, and a six month ban on JPMorgan Chase & Co's energy
trading arm from some of the U.S. power market.
The office of enforcement at FERC now has about 200, up from
about 20 in the Enron era.
A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman declined to comment.
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