Citi Securities and Fund Services Announces High-Level Appointments to Electronic Markets Business

Citi’s Securities and Fund Services announced today that its Electronic Markets business has appointed a number of experienced industry professionals to senior positions in its global team to enhance its client-facing organization. The business is part of Citi Global Transaction Services, and includes the CitiDirect® suite of products, CitiConnect, Execution-to-Custody and a variety of other connectivity solutions.

Neeraj Sahai, Global Head of Securities and Fund Services at Citi said, "the addition of information industry experts to Citi’s Electronic Markets business further demonstrates our commitment to setting and maintaining the industry standard for clearing and settlement infrastructure. We are most interested in tailoring solutions consistent with client requirements; as such we realize the importance of maintaining a complex set of touch points with clients in order to respond to their changing needs.”

Curt Brill, Global Head of Electronic Markets at Citi added, "Improving our knowledge of how information is used and transmitted by our clients is vital to the client experience, and is of critical importance in our ability to service them. We have demonstrated via unique, value-added solutions, such as Citiconnect for Funds, an automated order routing service to settlement processing, and Execution to Custody, a fully-integrated instruction-to-settlement process that incorporates a complete custody service, that processing efficiencies that improve the flow of information within and between counterparties is a huge benefit to clients.”

The group has added 15 new professional staff globally over the past two months, with the following new hires in the North America region:

Gary Probert, based in NY, Managing Director, Electronic Markets, is the global product manager at Citi for E2C, Execution to Custody, a joint initiative with Citigroup Global Markets and Citigroup Securities & Fund Services. Prior to joining Citi, Gary was responsible for International Operations at Fidelity Investments where he focused on increasing STP rates and managing brokers’ operational performance globally. He is a long-serving co-chair of Omgeo’s Americas Advisory board, and is Vice Chair and Executive Committee member of the STP and Standards organization, ISITC.

Richard Stumm, based in NY, Global Product Manager, has been in the financial services industry for 27 years. His prior positions include roles at Thomson McKinnon and Broadridge, with senior management roles in data center operations, technical support, software development, implementation, client services, product management and new business development.

Leonard Schwartz, based in NY, Americas Market Manager Head, is responsible for the Americas Market Management team within Citi's GTS Securities and Fund Services business. Prior to this, Leonard ran ABN AMRO's SWIFT Corporate Access business globally and then, under RBS, worked with Market Infrastructures and standards organizations globally. He has been responsible for a series of product management, product strategy and development assignments working with client access needs in the payments and treasury management arena.

David Diaz, based in NY, Markets Manager, is focused on expanding the value of Electronic Markets services delivered to the alternative investment market segment. David joins Electronic Markets from Citi's Prime Finance unit and brings with him over 10 years of diverse experience in financial industry product management, buy and sell side operations improvement consulting and knowledge based solution sales. Prior to his role at Citi Prime Finance, David was a Manager in the operations consulting unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Romesh Gunaratnam, based in NY, Publishing Capability Manager, has over 10 years of experience in financial services, most recently as a Director of Product Management in DTCC's Wealth Management Services division. Previously, he was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management where he helped launch their Unified Managed Account platform and later led their Unified Managed Account (UMA) Overlay Management Group.

Viktoria Scott-Lavino, based in NY, Publishing Capability Manager, was Director, Client Technology Strategy at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney where she defined strategy and led day-to-day operations of smithbarney.com. Prior to this role, she was Senior Vice President, Client Technology Strategy, at Citi Smith Barney, where she led the strategy and execution for all retail servicing functions and features on smithbarney.com.

Tom Price, based in NY, Transaction Management Capability Manager, is a 30+ year veteran of the financial services industry with experience in the front, middle and back office. Most recently, he was Research Director at the TowerGroup, focusing on business and technology trends shaping capital markets landscape.

Robert Levangie, based in Boston, Connectivity Solutions Manager, was previously at Omgeo as Manager of Global Alliances. In his role, he provided expert input and analysis in a pre-sales cycle from a technology and product perspective, and conducted analysis and requirements gathering sessions on both an internal and external client basis.

About Securities and Fund Services

Through its Securities and Fund Services business, Citi provides institutions worldwide with an unparalleled portfolio of offerings that enable them to grow, reduce cost and mitigate risk. With over $11 trillion of assets under custody and the industry's largest proprietary network, clients can leverage Citi's local market expertise and global reach to extract value across the entire investment value chain.

About Global Transaction Services

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citigroup’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citigroup’s Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the first quarter of 2010, it held on average $319 billion in liability balances and $11.8 trillion in assets under custody.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.