Ralph Orlowski/Getty ImagesThe headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, under construction in 2009.
Deutsche Bank has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over charges that the bank manipulated California’s energy markets in 2010.
The agreement, announced late on Tuesday, includes a $1.5 million fine against Deutsche Bank, which also must surrender around $170,000 in profit related to the energy trading activity.
The energy commission said in a statement that some of Deutsche Bank’s employees had entered into a number of transactions in early 2010 that unfairly benefited the bank.
“Deutsche Bank violated the commission’s anti-manipulation rule by engaging in a scheme in which Deutsche Bank entered into physical transactions to benefit its financial position,” the commission said.
The action is the latest effort to clamp down on market abuses by the commission, which oversees the oil, natural gas and electricity sectors.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also levying a $470 million penalty against the British bank Barclays related to trading activity, though Barclays is challenging the accusations. The fine would be the largest ever made by the commission.
The agency has also barred JPMorgan Chase’s energy trading unit from participating in a number of American energy markets for six months after some of the firm’s employees provided false information during an investigation into market manipulation.
The commission had originally proposed the fine against Deutsche Bank in September. The statement on Tuesday said Deutsche Bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, adding that the bank failed to reduce the financial penalty during negotiations.
Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/deutsche-bank-settles-ferc-trading-inquiry/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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