Deutsche Bank could settle Libor probe this month - sources
(Adds details from German financial watchdog)
By Karen Freifeld
April 9 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG, which faces allegations that it tried to rig the Libor benchmark interest rate, could settle with U.S. and British authorities as early as this month, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The penalties are likely to exceed $1.5 billion, the amount UBS Group AG paid in 2012, one of the sources said.
Negotiations also involve the possibility of a Deutsche UK subsidiary pleading guilty, the person said, adding that Deutsche Bank executives could be targeted for discipline, though many of them have already left the bank.
Deutsche Bank had originally hoped to clear its decks of legal problems in 2014, but was unable to do so as negotiations over the Libor settlement dragged on.
Germany's largest lender may be among the last to settle with the authorities over the Libor manipulation scandal, one of the most prominent cases on its long list of legal headaches.
A third person familiar with the matter said earlier this week that it does not expect the bank will need to hike its provisions for the Libor settlement.
After several delays, German financial watchdog Bafin will likely sum up its own investigation into Deutsche's role in the rate rigging scandal as early as next month, another source said. The regulator has already found no evidence that key managers of the bank knew about the manipulation.
New York's Department of Financial Services is also involved in the Deutsche Libor probe, unlike with the other banks.
Deutsche Bank already settled with European antitrust regulators over Libor and its euro equivalent Euribor, agreeing to pay 725 million euros ($767 million).
Deutsche Bank, the world's second-largest foreign exchange trader, is also under investigation by U.S. authorities over other practices, including possible manipulation of emerging markets currency rates.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank said that the lender continues to work with the authorities, but declined to comment further.
The U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, New York's Department of Financial Services and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority all declined comment.
Germany's flagship lender is in the midst of a review of its universal banking model, which sees it selling everything from home loans to equity derivatives, to see if hiving off parts of the business would boost profits.
($1 = 0.9447 euros) (Additional reporting by Huw Jones in London, Kathrin Jones and Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt and Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
