Citi Launches Digital ETF Order Portal in Hong Kong for Issuers and Participating Dealers

Hong Kong – Citi announced today it has launched a digital ETF Order Portal in the Hong Kong market enabling Participating Dealers to place all creation and redemption orders online for Citi administered ETFs. The Advanced Citi ETF System (ACES) ETF Order Portal includes workflows and a real-time trade status dashboard, both of which can be configured for nuances by fund type and market. The ACES technology makes Citi one of the first banks in the region to fully digitize the entire ETF primary market life cycle.

"The ACES ETF Order Portal is a testament to our continued commitment to delivering the breadth of our expertise and capabilities to ETF issuers in the region," said Julie Kerr, Citi's APAC Head of Custody Fund Services. "At Citi, championing the growth and progress of our clients is central to what we do, and this launch is the latest example of that focus in ETFs."

This module builds on the existing ACES capability launched by Citi in January 2020 for the creation and distribution of ETF portfolio composition files (PCFs) for Hong Kong ETFs and is being refined to support end-to-end ETF Services in more APAC markets in 2021. The PCF represents the basket of securities and cash that would be required to effect a creation or redemption on the next trading day.

"The deployment of the ACES ETF Order Portal in Hong Kong is another example of our holistic approach to providing ETF services," said Antoine de Saint Vaulry, APAC Head of ETF Sales and Business Development at Citi. "We identified the efficiency and transparency pain points faced by some of our ETF issuers and Participating Dealer clients, and we harnessed our experience across Markets and Securities Services to deliver a flexible and easy-to-use solution."

The launch of this portal comes at a time when many market participants have staff working from home and are looking for digital solutions to replace manual processes that would otherwise require staff to be physically present in their work place.

With over $23.6 trillion of assets under custody and administration and the industry-leading proprietary network spanning 63 markets, Citi's Securities Services business provides clients with in-depth local market expertise, advanced processing technologies and a wide range of fund services that can be tailored to meet clients' needs. Citi provides services to 133 ETFs for 23 issuers across the APAC region.

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Media Contact:
Godwin Chellam, +852-2868-7682, email: godwin.chellam@citi.com