Global Education Opportunities are an FX Trade Away

On October 1, 2013 CitiFX launched e for Education, an initiative in which we donate $1 for every $1 Million traded on our platform.

This Electronic Trading to support Education Initiative is one of the most exciting projects I've been involved with in the 25 years I've worked at Citi.

It stemmed from our conviction that access to education is the global game changer in improving the lives of those less fortunate. We wanted to identify a motivator for Citi to further support educational opportunities for those who don't necessarily have access. We quickly realized there was a way to align our desire to make a difference in the world with our business goals.

In January 2012, we released Velocity 2.0, an cutting edge electronic platform for trading Foreign Exchange. Velocity has a sleek user interface operates intuitively, has exceptional functionality, as well as extraordinarily competitive pricing. While our client interest and trading volumes on the platform are growing, we have only just started to hit our potential. We want to find a way to further spread the word about Velocity and give prospective users the chance to really give it a try.

Technology can be sticky. We know that once a user gets accustomed to a piece of software, it can be a challenge to convince a user to switch, even if the platform is better; so we decided to align incentives and offer clients an added reason to shift to Velocity. We believe that, like us, our clients want to help create a better world by extending educational opportunities to those less fortunate. With more clients using Velocity, Citi will donate more money toward our common goal. With more client volumes on Velocity, more kids will have access to education. With more clients referring their colleagues to Velocity, more finance professionals will be helping us create a better world.

Throughout the campaign we plan to amplify our impact by providing boosters, one of which will double contributions for trades done on our brand new Velocity iPad App. The app in itself is just awesome. In addition to executing trades, it allows you to track markets, follow news, and manage orders.

Once we identified these incentives, the next decision was selecting the beneficiaries of the proceeds.

We found six amazing nonprofits engaged in building or running schools or awarding scholarships. Uncommon Schools is one of the best-run charter school organizations in the US; Civic Builders helps charter schools find, develop and fund the school buildings; No Greater Sacrifice (NGS) offers full college scholarships to the children of fallen US soldiers; Room to Read is all about improving childrens' literacy in some of the poorest Emerging countries with a focus on Africa and Asia; Teach First focuses on enhancing the educational prospects for the poorest children in the UK; and EMpower improves lives by providing children in EM countries, particularly Latam, access to education.

The results of this initiative so far have exceeded our wildest dreams, suggesting that we will be donating significantly more than initially budgeted. This is a high quality problem. With Citi's belief that education is a right and that we will have a better world if more children have access to real educational opportunities, donating more money than we expected is the type of problem we love to have. Trade on Velocity, support a child's future....