UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, may be fined more than $1billion by U.S. and U.K. regulators for trying to rig globalinterest rates, more than double the amount levied against BarclaysPlc, according to a person familiar with the probe.

The fines from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission,the U.K. Financial Services Authority and the U.S. Department ofJustice may be announced as early as next week, said the person,who asked not to be identified because the information isn'tpublic. The final figures are still being negotiated and couldchange, three people familiar with the probes said.

Global authorities are investigating claims that more than adozen banks altered submissions used to set benchmarks such as theLondon interbank offered rate to profit from bets on interest-ratederivatives or make the lenders' finances appear healthier.Barclays, the U.K.'s second-biggest bank, agreed to pay 290 millionpounds ($467 million) in June to resolve the U.S. and U.K. Liborprobes.

UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne in New York declined to comment onthe potential penalties. Officials from the CFTC, FSA, Swissregulator Finma and the DOJ also declined to comment.

The fine will likely be the largest against any bank levied bythe U.S. and U.K. authorities in the Libor probes, the person said.The CFTC's portion of the fine against UBS may exceed the entirefine against Barclays. The fine, which was expected to be announcedthis week, has been delayed as the DOJ works out a deferredprosecution agreement, one of the people said.

Finma may also penalize the Zurich-based bank and force it todisgorge profits, one of the people said.

UBS fell 1.1 percent to 15.08 francs in Swiss trading yesterday,after declining as much as 1.9 percent. The stock has gained 36percent this year.

UBS was fined 29.7 million pounds last month by the FSA and toldby the Swiss regulator it may have to increase capital levels foroperational risks after a $2.3 billion loss from unauthorizedtrading by Kweku Adoboli. The former trader in UBS's London officewas sentenced to seven years in jail on Nov. 20 for fraud inrelation to the loss, the largest from unauthorized trading inBritish history.

25 People

More than 25 people left UBS after the lender's own internalprobe into rate manipulation, another person familiar with thematter said last month.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is in talks to settle with U.S.and U.K. authorities over Libor, a person familiar with the mattersaid earlier this year. That fine is also expected to be more thanthat against Barclays and less than that of UBS.

U.K. prosecutors made their first arrests in the criminal Liborinvestigation on Dec. 11. Thomas Hayes, a former trader at UBS andCitigroup Inc., and two men who worked at the brokerage RP MartinHoldings Ltd. were questioned, people familiar with the casesaid.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office, which is conducting a criminalprobe in parallel with the U.S. Department of Justice's frauddivision, has focused on e-mails between traders at UBS and otherbanks.

UBS has received conditional immunity from antitrust authoritiesincluding the Canadian Competition Bureau, the Swiss CompetitionCommission and the DOJ for being among the first companies toreport their own wrongdoing and cooperate.

UBS, the world's second-largest manager of money for thewealthy, had struggled to map out a strategy for the investmentbank since suffering $57 billion in subprime-related losses duringthe financial crisis. The Adoboli losses led to the departure ofChief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel, 69, in September 2011 andhastened a review that led to the decision to eliminate 10,000 jobsover three years and dismantle portions of the investment bank.

Libor, a benchmark for more than $300 trillion of financialproducts worldwide, is derived from a survey of banks conductedeach day on behalf of the British Bankers' Association in London.Lenders are asked how much it would cost them to borrow from oneanother for 15 different periods, from overnight to one year, incurrencies including dollars, euros, yen and Swiss francs.

The Swiss antitrust regulator granted UBS conditional immunityin its investigation into manipulation of the Yen Libor, Tibor andSwiss franc Libor rates. The DOJ granted similar immunity as partof its probes into Yen Libor and Euroyen Tibor.

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