UBS trader Kweku Adoboli charged with fraud

Kweku Adoboli, the 31-year-old one-time star trader at UBS, has been charged with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting barely 24 hours after the Swiss bank warned his alleged "unauthorised trading" could cause a $2bn (£1.3bn) loss.

The City of London police said that Adoboli, British educated and of Ghanaian descent, remains in custody at Bishopsgate police station and will appear at City of London magistrates court later on Friday.

"At 12.56hrs the Crown Prosecution Service authorised the charging of Kweku Adoboli, from Bethnal Green. City of London police has since charged the 31-year-old with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting. He remains in police custody and is due to appear at City of London magistrates this afternoon," the police said.

The forced added that the investigation is ongoing and officers continue to work in "close collaboration" with the Financial Services Authority, the Serious Fraud Office and the CPS.

He is understood to have hired Kingsley Napley, the firm of lawyers that represented Nick Leeson when his £800m rogue trading caused the collapse of Barings in 1995. There was no immediate response from the firm of lawyers.

Adoboli was charged after more than 24 hours in Bishopsgate Police Station following his arrest at 3.30am on Thursday morning. His employers tipped off the police at 1am on Thursday after learning about his trading activities on the so-called Delta One desk in the heart of the third floor dealing room in UBS's headquarters in Liverpool Street.

The Swiss bank is expected to reveal more information about this alleged activities later on Friday.

His registration with the Financial Services Authority was switched to "inactive" on Friday at the request of UBS, indicating that he is no longer working in that role.

There are now expectations that the Swiss bank will scale back its investment banking operation in the City, potentially causing thousands of job cuts among the 6,000 City-based workforce.