Citi Offers a Single Integrated Electronic Execution and Custody Solution to Clients

London/Paris – Citi today announced that its Global Transaction Services (GTS) and Citi Global Markets (CGM) businesses are now providing clients with an integrated electronic execution and custody solution for most major equities markets. The Citi Execution to Custody innovative approach addresses the challenges of a complex execution landscape and associated increasing order and trade volumes. Citi’s solution combines electronic execution and smart order routing to reach pockets of liquidity and achieve best execution. It also uses GTS’s leading custody capabilities to reduce settlement costs, automate the settlement process, and provide full asset servicing, post trade. Citi understands the pressure of today’s challenging economic environment for clients. It is focused on equities first and will expand into other asset classes shortly.

For the buyside, it improves fund performance by decreasing costs in the middle and back office, while for the sellside, it provides operational efficiency and reduces cost by using Citi’s global network and processing capabilities.

Curtis Brill, Managing Director, Global Head of Electronic Markets for Securities and Fund Services at Citi, said, “A dramatic shift has occurred in the European equities market. The number of trading venues has increased, causing significant fragmentation of liquidity in the marketplace. Furthermore, new regulations, such as MIFID, have made it more difficult and costly for broker-dealers and asset managers to remain competitive while complying with them.”

“This solution is meant for broker-dealers and asset managers seeking to overcome the challenges of market fragmentation in a cost-effective manner. By using Citi’s integrated pre- and post-trade platform and extensive network to provide a single counterparty in all major execution markets worldwide, clients can achieve operational efficiencies and reduce the risks of dealing with multiple providers.”

The solution will use Citi’s Lava Technology market access platform and Citi’s trade life-cycle order to trade to settlement automation platform, CitiConnectSM for Securities, with Citi’s award-winning proprietary custody branch network.

Citi launched Citi (R) Execution to Custody in the EMEA region in June 2008, targeting market intermediaries to address client demand for post-MIFID solutions. The Citi (R) Execution to Custody service provides a single counterparty to execute, settle and provide custody in all major execution markets worldwide. Through the linking of Citi’s capital markets and securities capabilities, Citi provides clients a premium service, removing the operational inefficiencies and risks that come from dealing with multiple providers.

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citi’s Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the first quarter of 2009, it held, on average,