CitiFX Review Underscores the Importance of Market Impact Considerations and the Need for FX Vendors to Innovate to Remain Competitive

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citi announced the results of its fifth FX Vendor Review, based on insights from its vendor analysis and its annual client survey.

The CitiFX Vendor Review reflects Citi's commitment to providing best-in-class FX solutions and fostering a collaborative ecosystem for clients and liquidity providers.

“Our ultimate goal is to enhance connectivity, expand product offerings, bolster stability, and improve overall market operations to further benefit our clients, liquidity providers, and all other market participants,” said Ayesa Latif, Global Head of Foreign Exchange Products at Citi.

CitiFX and our clients are aligned in this view, with 94% emphasizing the importance of vendor adherence to the FX Global Code and 85% highlighting the need for vendors to consider market impact when developing execution tools.

Client insights highlight demand for increased innovation and deeper integrations with their FX vendors

The client survey results shows that client satisfaction with primary vendors remains high at 90% however, 85% of respondents have enhancement requests. These requests can be grouped into execution and workflow solutions, which are designed to mitigate against operational and settlement risk.

This increasing demand for innovative FX solutions, especially in execution, connectivity, and workflow integration, combined with closer buyside-vendor integrations, is driving a decline in vendor switching, down from 51% in 2021 to 22% in 2025.

These results highlight a trend of FX vendors moving beyond the scope of a traditional Execution Management System and therefore becoming a critical component of our clients’ execution workflow.

Venues have capital constraints due to rising maintenance costs and regulatory burdens

By examining vendor constraints on innovation, which range from increasing infrastructure upgrade costs to evolving regulatory burdens, the overall challenge for vendors is an allocation of sufficient capital expenditure towards client demands for enhancing integrations and automated solutions - therefore leaving room for competitors.

Additionally, it is critical for vendors to maintain client satisfaction levels to preserve revenue streams. This in turn hinders the ability to further innovate, potentially leading to a cycle of client attrition. A gradual loss of clients in a competitive FX landscape can have detrimental consequences, if not addressed proactively.

About the CitiFX Vendor Review

The CitiFX Vendor Review evaluates vendors across nine key criteria, including adherence to the FX global Code, functionality, connectivity, governance, stability, costs (direct and indirect), customer service and Volume distribution. The robust framework and transparent benchmarks help identify FX venues that meet client connectivity requirements and highlight areas for potential improvement. The review offers valuable insights into the dynamic FX landscape, leveraging extensive data analysis, annual client survey results and Citi's expertise.

This edition also highlights viewpoints from Citi’s clients on various aspects of the FX landscape, such as the regulatory environment, use of data in execution workflows, and the future of next-generation FX technologies.

About Citi

Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in nearly 180 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services.

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