MIG Bank, the Swiss bank specialising in online trading, has received the go-ahead from the UK regulator to start offering online foreign exchange and gold and silver trading through a subsidiary based in the London.

The development comes hot on the heels of a new representative office in Hong Kong for clients in Asia, which the bank launched last month in a bid to capture a greater share of the fast-growing market in the region. The bank now believes that the opening of MIG Capital in London will help its expansion in Europe.

MIG Capital said in a statement that it will seek to reflect the traditional values of its parent bank, which it thinks will give it an edge in an online trading environment it describes as “increasingly automated and impersonal”.

MIG Bank first came into being as a specialist in online currency brokerage called MIG Investments in 2003, subsequently being granted a banking licence by the Swiss regulator, FINMA, in 2009. This year the firm obtained a Securities Dealer Licence.