Citi has appointed electronic trading platform provider Rapid Addition as one of its core FIX platform partners for currency trading, based on the company’s latency performance and scalability to meet business requirements.

We are delighted to announce that Rapid Addition has been appointed by Citi as a core #FIX platform partner for FX #trading. Read the full press release here: https://t.co/50rhdTcU3w pic.twitter.com/FBzfIFgaTB

— Rapid Addition (@RapidAddition) December 4, 2019

Citi has integrated the Rapid Addition FIX engine, as well as the Rapid Addition Hub platform into its new pricing technology for spot foreign exchange transactions, which clients can connect to in co-locations across London, Tokyo, New York, and Singapore. The Rapid Addition FIX engine delivers market-leading speed for low latency trading, while the Rapid Addition Hub platform delivers scalability in client on-boarding and configuration.

Mark Meredith, Global Head of FX E-Trading and Algorithmic Execution at Citi, commented: “It is vitally important that we are highly competitive in the field of API trading, and key factors contributing to that are latency and stability characteristics. Rapid Addition’s technology has enabled this and helped us meet our primary goal of growing our relevance in this space. It has also given us secondary benefits such as reducing server footprint by some 70% and ensuring we meet regulatory obligations with regard to scalability. More importantly, it allows us to easily deploy our unique value proposition to clients, whether that be our price construction engine, execution algorithms, or liquidity calibration tools. We are confident that we now have a platform that allows us to constantly evolve our business to meet the needs of our clients.”

Citi’s ongoing investment in technology has cemented its position amongst the leading banks in the critical electronic trading segment of the market, which has grown rapidly over recent years and now represents 80% of global customer FX trading volume.

The rise in electronic FX trading has been driven by customers’ desire to achieve the levels of price transparency and automated workflow they experience in other asset classes. With increasing liquidity fragmentation pushing up the cost and complexity of connecting to markets, many clients have turned to large-scale banks to provide efficient access to broad liquidity coverage.

Rapid Addition’s CEO, Mike Powell commented: “We are delighted to partner with a market leader in such a key area of their business. Our work with Citi demonstrates the value of Rapid Addition’s technology in enhancing electronic workflow in the FX arena. As market fragmentation, best execution and trade automation continue to become common themes across all major asset classes, our customers are increasingly leveraging our scalable enterprise technology to address business challenges across their trading workflow.”

Source: Rapid Addition