Britain's financial watchdog criticizes Deutsche Bank over Libor

FRANKFURT, April 18 (Reuters) - Britain's financial regulator has harshly criticized Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) 's top management for failing to cooperate in its probe of the rigging of benchmark interest rate Libor, German magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) .

Britains Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wrote a letter saying that Deutsche Bank's behaviour was unacceptable, the magazine said, adding that Deutsche Bank's board discussed the letter.

The lender declined to comment.

The penalties expected to be imposed on the bank by U.S. and UK authorities are likely to exceed $1.5 billion, the amount UBS Group AG paid in 2012, two sources told Reuters earlier in April.

Deutsche Bank is expected to settle with U.S. and British authorities as early as Thursday over allegations that it tried to rig benchmark interest rates.

Spiegel wrote that some supervisors involved in the probe would seek to hold Deutsche Bank management accountable.

A spokesman for the FCA was not immediately available to comment.

German watchdog Bafin is expected to sum up its own investigation into Deutsche's role in the rate rigging scandal as early as May, one source said earlier in April. The regulator has already found no evidence that key managers of the bank knew about the manipulation.

Deutsche Bank, the world's second-largest foreign exchange trader, still faces potential claims or settlements over issues including possible attempts at foreign exchange benchmark manipulation and possible violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

At the end of 2014, Deutsche Bank had set aside 3.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in litigation reserves and outlined another 1.9 billion euros in potential risks and indicated that it faced an additional 4.8 billion euros in mortgage repurchase claims. ($1 = 0.9255 euros) (Reporting by Thomas Atkins, additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Kathrin Jones Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)