By Jamie McGeever and Katharina Bart
ZURICH/LONDON June 12 (Reuters) - UBS shares fell onThursday following a research report which said the Swiss bankcould have to pay $8 billion in fines and settlements relatingto alleged collusion and price-manipulation in the globalcurrency market.
The report, published on Wednesday by independent researchfirm Autonomous Research, said foreign exchange settlementscould cost banks a total of $35 billion, almost six times morethan the total fines paid in the Libor interest rate-riggingscandal.
Shares in UBS, which declined to comment on thefigure in the report, were down 1.9 percent at 1200 GMT, a movetraders in Zurich attributed to the Autonomous report.
The report estimates that UBS will pay $8 billion, thebiggest fine for any single bank and more than the $6 billiontotal all banks have so far shelled out for Libor.
Next are the world's two largest foreign exchange tradingbanks: Deutsche Bank AG with an expected $4.4 billionfine, and Citigroup with $4.3 billion.
Autonomous, a research firm founded in 2009 covering majorEuropean and U.S. banks, based its estimates on the size ofLibor fines, including those avoided for co-operation. Itreckons the total FX fine pool will be at least double the Libortotal, but capped at each bank's annual profit level.
"We acknowledge that our methodology is speculative, but itapplies the theory that repeated wrongdoing attracts higherpenalties, as witnessed elsewhere," the authors said in thereport.
Autonomous is an independent research firm covering majorU.S. and European banks. It was founded in 2009 by StuartGraham, formerly head of European banks equity research atMerrill Lynch. The firm's chairman is Lord Myners.
UBS declined to comment on the Autonomous report, but aspokesman pointed to the bank's first-quarter report, where itshowed 1.778 billion Swiss francs in provisions to cover all itslegal difficulties. Its quarterly report in May showed thatoverall operational and legal risks could hit the bank's capitalbase by 3.1 billion francs in the coming 12 months.
Deutsche declined to comment, and Citi was unavailable forimmediate comment.
Regulators around the world, including the U.S. Departmentof Justice and Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, areinvestigating allegations that senior currency traders sharedclient order information with each other and attempted tomanipulate exchange rates.
Some 40 FX employees at many of the world's biggest bankshave been placed on leave, suspended or fired as part of theglobal investigation - including one employee at the Bank ofEngland - although no individual or institution has been accusedof any wrongdoing. (Additional reporting by Ruppert Pretterklieber; Editing bySophie Walker)