Citi

PRESS RELEASE

Citi held off the competition for the second year running to top Asiamoney’s 2012 survey of FX trading banks in Asia that provide access and services to the currencies markets.

Citi has been busy rebuilding in recent years. Its latest attempt to put the crisis behind it came last month, when it settled with investors for $590 million over claims it failed to disclose the full extent of its dealings in the sub-prime market.

When EuromoneyFXNews asks one of the world’s largest real-money investors what the three most important characteristics are in an ideal execution counterparty, the fund manager replies: “Pricing, pricing and pricing.”

When EuromoneyFXNews asks one of the world’s largest real-money investors what the three most important characteristics are in an ideal execution counterparty, the fund manager replies: “Pricing, pricing and pricing.”

It may be a poor relation to the Rugby Sevens, but in football-mad Asia the Citi Soccer Sevens, held in Hong Kong, is starting to gain a strong following.

Citi remains the FX bank with the most wind in its sails and is now breathing down the neck of top-placed Deutsche Bank.

Citi remains the FX bank with the most wind in its sails and is now breathing down the neck of top-placed Deutsche Bank.

Anil Prasad, Citi’s global head of FX and local markets, believes he is close to successfully executing his three-year plan: to take his FX division back to the top of the Euromoney FX league table.

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Citigroup, the fourth-ranked FX bank, has launched Velocity 2.0 – the latest version of its single-dealer FX trading platform – 18 months after introducing its predecessor, Velocity 1.9, as it seeks to grab a larger share of FX trading volumes by offering easier-to-use functions and faster trading speeds.

Citi’s chief economist Willem Buiter and global economist Ebrahim Rahbari warn the markets of financial and trade protectionism and “repression” but emphasise that emerging markets will create buoyancy for the world economy during the sovereign debt crisis.

Citigroup’s securities and banking revenues increase 20% to $6.7 billion in the third quarter, after a credit valuation adjustment (CVA).

Bank’s monopoly under threat after the launch of rival products by Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

This year’s cash management survey is particularly significant given the growing recognition of the value of cash management services in the wake of the global financial crisis and increasing concerns regarding investment banking.

Morgan Stanley has launched FX Gateway, a new multi-manager platform aimed at providing institutional investors access to select currency managers.

Citigroup has launched a new FX investment platform, CitiFX Access, that will offer a range of opportunities for investors to get exposure to currency markets via currency managers and to generate alpha, the bank said today.

During the 2008 crisis, when Citigroup was accepting its bailout from the US government there were rumours circulating around Latin America that the bank would be forced, for either regulatory or capital-raising reasons, to sell Banamex. Itaú Unibanco was one of the banks most often put forward as lining up to take Citi’s Mexican franchise off its hands.

Citigroup is pinning its global strategy on the emerging markets and holds high hopes for its Latin America business. But, right now, it is nowhere near what it could and should be. Rob Dwyer reports from New York and São Paulo.

Citigroup has topped Asiamoney’s poll of foreign-exchange trading banks in Asia, rising two places to dethrone HSBC as the region’s most popular bank for FX service provision. Asiamoney, a sister publication of EuromoneyFXNews, ranks banks on the basis of client service ratings.

Citigroup has made at least 20 redundancies in its FX division in London and New York due to underperformance, according to people familiar.

Citigroup has hired Conor Brides from Goldman Sachs, as a spot trader based in London, and he will be report to Rohan Ramchandani, head of the London spot desk, a Citigroup spokesperson confirmed. The hire follows on the heels of Anthony John, who was previously employed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. John is also reporting to Rohan Ramchandani.

Volumes in US dollar-denominated investment-grade debt could reach $100 billion in May, putting 2011 on track to beat 2010 and 2009, says Peter Aherne, head of North American capital markets and syndicate at Citi. Both January and March this year saw issuance of more than $100 billion, according to Dealogic. As of May 3, $347 billion had been issued year-to-date versus $787 billion in all of 2010.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is big, but it has a small FX footprint. With some key hires in recent years, it hopes to capitalize on its potential. Can it deliver? asks Hamish Risk

John Havens takes over day-to-day running of the firm; Vikram Pandit concentrates on strategy

The SEC’s enforcement chief Robert Khuzami is under investigation for allegedly giving preferential treatment to Citigroup in the settlement of a case related to its exposure to subprime mortgages.

Poor Vikram Pandit can’t catch a break. Despite Citi stock being up almost 44% over 2010, and profits and revenues on the rise as credit losses decrease, Pandit seems to get blamed for everything. In January, the Indian police reportedly filed a case against Pandit and other senior Citi executives because of an alleged $70 million fraud at a Citibank branch in a New Delhi suburb. Yet more bizarre – the fraud was supposedly reported to the police by Citi itself. But an accusation made in a bar menu in the East Village in New York City poses perhaps the biggest threat to Pandit’s good-guy reputation. He’s apparently lost Santa Claus’s retirement funds.

Citi, which has once again been ranked first globally in Euromoney’s trade finance survey (with almost double the number of points as second placed Deutsche Bank), dominates the industry.