Citi has entered into an alliance with BlackRock, through its Aladdin® business to enhance the delivery of securities services to Citi’s clients who utilize the Aladdin end-to-end investment management platform. Connecting to Aladdin Provider, Citi will provide outsourced middle office services directly on a client’s instance of Aladdin for seamless integration with their front office, from trade confirmation to post settlement reconciliation.

“We are thrilled to join BlackRock’s Aladdin Provider network,” said Sanjiv Sawhney, Global Head of Custody and Fund Services at Citi. “Our clients continually look to us to improve operational efficiencies, and BlackRock’s innovative platform will facilitate shared workflows and shared data sources that will reduce manual processes and operating costs while improving service outcomes for our mutual clients.”

This agreement expands Citi’s relationship with BlackRock to whom it provides custody, accounting and/or fiduciary services for certain BlackRock funds domiciled in Hong Kong, Mexico and Colombia. In addition to funds managed by BlackRock, Citi also provides custody services to many asset managers on the Aladdin platform. Joining the Aladdin Provider network will allow Citi to optimize its operating model to support not only BlackRock’s asset management business, but to provide an enhanced level of service to members of the broader Aladdin community.

“We are pleased to team up with Citi, one of the largest securities services firms, to deliver an integrated Aladdin-based operating model to our mutual clients,” said Sudhir Nair, head of the Aladdin Business at BlackRock, adding “this integrated environment will allow for greater automation, data symmetry and streamlined communications between Citi and members of the Aladdin community.”

The connection to BlackRock’s Aladdin Provider network advances Citi’s strategy to leverage technology to achieve operational efficiencies across their custody and fund services platform.

“Connecting Aladdin Provider to our data integration and delivery framework, Clarity, is a continuation of our commitment to deliver meaningful data and analytics that help clients reduce operating costs and extract actionable insights from their data,” said Fiona Horsewill, Head of Global Digital and Data Strategy for Citi Custody and Fund Services. Citi’s Clarity platform facilitates comprehensive data integration and consumption with real-time APIs and visualizations.

Used by many of the world’s most sophisticated investors, Aladdin is BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform that combines sophisticated risk analytics with comprehensive portfolio management, trading and operations tools on a single, unified platform.

With over $21.5 trillion of assets under custody and administration and the industry-leading proprietary network spanning 63 markets1, Citi’s Custody and Fund 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.

Source: Citi