Citi has developed and implemented a state of the art ultra-low latency Internal Matching engine, CitiFX Match and according to the bank, it is now focused on updating each algo strategy to fully leverage CitiFX Match, enabling access to what is effectively one of the industry’s largest spot liquidity pools.
“As clients continue to incorporate algorithmic execution into their daily process and risk management regimes, Citi continues to invest in this space,” says Fergal Walsh, Managing Director, Global Head of Algorithmic Execution for Foreign Exchange and Local Markets at Citi.According to Walsh, this development should further reduce market impact, increase internalisation rates and ultimately improve fills for Citi’s clients. “The breadth and depth of our FX franchise is a key differentiator for Citi and something we want our clients to be able to leverage to the fullest when they place FX algo orders with us. By adding CitiFX Match to our algo platform, we should reduce the need to cross spreads in the market and consequently that should lower market impact and reduce execution cost for our clients.”
Demand for Citi’s FX algo suite is on the rise in all sectors and regions and the take-up from the real money community has also been quite significant. According to Walsh, the rate at which these clients have adopted their processes to use FX algo’s has been “truly impressive.” “But it has not stopped there,” Walsh adds. “A growing number of multinational corporates no longer limit their algo use to one off large transactions but are expanding use for all (spot) flows where they wish to optimise or reduce their execution costs.”