The trial of a former UBS trader accused of Britain's biggest banking fraud is to kick-off today (Friday) with the prosecution set to begin proceedings.

Kweku Adoboli is accused of false accounting and fraud while at UBS' and resulted in the Swiss investment bank losing £1.4bn, while working in the global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds, which track different types of stocks, commodities and bonds.

The son of a retired Ghanian United Nations diplomat, Adoboli was arrested last September but pleaded not guilty at an initial court hearing in January to the two counts of fraud by abuse of position and the two counts of false accounting.

UBS, who are not implicit in the allegations made against their former employee, released a statement saying: 'The UK criminal process is ongoing and will run its course. In the meantime, UBS remains completely focused on our clients and on continuing to deliver on our strategy. UBS is not a party to the case and therefore has no further comment.'

In February, the Financial Services Authority and the Swiss regulator FINMA launched an investigation into why UBS had failed to spot the irregularities sooner and these are still ongoing.