ZURICH, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Swiss fintech Leonteq said on Tuesday that it was lowering its profit expectations for 2022 due to reduced client demand in the second half of the year.

"Leonteq continued to register reduced client demand on the back of an overall challenging market environment but recorded stable monthly net fee income over the same period," it said.

The company said it expects to report a group net profit for lonteqq 2022, without giving any exact numbers.

Its previous guidance was that it would exceed the prior year's group net profit of 155.7 million Swiss francs ($167.3 million).

Leonteq's shares plunged in October after the Financial Times said whistleblowers had accused consultants EY of whitewashing suspicious trades in an investigation it conducted this year for Leonteq.

The company, which offers structured investment products, said internal and external investigations had found no evidence to support the allegations raised by the Financial Times.

On Tuesday Leonteq also said that it had reached a settlement in a legacy case originally put forward by Old Mutual International, since acquired by Utmost, related to alleged events that took place between 2012 and 2016.

($1 = 0.9305 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Noele Illien; Editing By Tom Hogue, Kirsten Donovan)