A trader accused of losing $2.3 billion at the Swiss bank UBS in what is alleged to be Britain's biggest banking fraud appeared in court on Monday for the start of his trial.

Ghanaian-born equities trader Kweku Adoboli denies two counts of fraud and two counts of false accounting, alleged to have taken place between 2008 and September 2011.

The initial stages of the trial were procedural and the prosecution case is not expected to open until later this week.

AFP