• WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. energy regulators are accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co. of manipulating electricity prices in California and the Midwest in 2010 and 2011.
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in an enforcement notice Monday that the bank used improper bidding strategies to squeeze excessive payments from the agencies that run the power grids in California and the Midwest.
• JPMorgan has reportedly been in negotiations with the regulator to reach a settlement over the allegations. The agency recently levied a $453 million fine on Barclays, Britain's second-largest bank, for manipulating electricity prices in California and other western states. Barclays is disputing the allegations.
• The notice could be a prelude to a settlement with New York-based JPMorgan, which is the largest U.S. bank.
• JPMorgan spokesman Brian Marchiony declined to comment.
• FERC's enforcement staff said its investigation had found improper trading practices were used at the company's Houston-based subsidiary, JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp.
• The energy unit used five "manipulative bidding strategies" in California between September 2010 and June 2011, and three in the Midwest from October 2010 to May 2011, FERC said. The agency that runs the Midwestern power grid, now called the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, covers all or parts of 15 states and the Canadian province of Manitoba.
• JPMorgan Ventures Energy has contracts with power generating companies to trade their electricity. FERC said the JPMorgan traders offered to sell electricity at artificially low prices in a "day-ahead" market, so that companies would put their plants on standby mode to quickly generate energy. That would allow JPMorgan to earn special fees for putting the power plants on standby mode.
• Later, the traders would offer to sell electricity from the plants at higher prices in the market for last-minute energy needs, according to FERC.

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