Workflow Award – Citi

Much of this has been covered in Citi’s award for emerging markets, but the sheer volume of work undertaken by the bank to improve what was something of a piecemeal platform cannot be understated.

Some people think workflow and think sophisticated, but complex, solutions – Citi sees it very much as requiring simplicity, and it is hard to argue with that viewpoint. We have already noted the bank is seeking to leverage the excellent Pulse into a platform that will seamlessly handle instructional FX trades from custodians, but this is a great example of how the bank simplified matters.

The idea generation on Velocity remains the best in the business, thanks largely to its FX Overview, which provides an interactive and intuitive journey through markets, helping inform just about any decision. Infinity Cable is a useful tool for file uploads for staging and trading, while the trading experience has also been improved thanks to the bank finally leveraging its franchise in its algo suite, which offers much more choice than it once did.

Post-trade, Click remains a popular tool for prime brokerage clients, but the decision to bring the FX business closer to the investor and securities services businesses means inevitably, workflow tools are also better connected.

Workflow has been something of a buzzword for the past two years or so, but at heart it remains a largely overlooked and unspectacular part of a banks e-FX offering. Citi is changing the thinking on that, by bringing ease of access and processing front and centre.