Citi announced the launch of its annual CitiFX Vendor Review, which provides the broadest view of FX vendors and a comprehensive analysis of the FX landscape for the benefit of clients and FX providers.

The review highlights where strategic venue and vendor partners can improve based on client need and work towards a gold standard of best practice, operational governance, and clear benchmarks.

Based on a robust framework and data-driven analysis, the review empowers clients to navigate an increasingly complex FX landscape. The analysis provides unique insight, helping clients identify FX venues which meet connectivity requirements, which ultimately improves the end client experience. This year’s review includes qualitative analysis, derived from a client survey, providing insight on the regulatory landscape, and the future of AI in FX trading.

Now in its fourth year, the annual review promotes vendor best practice & operational governance, underpinned by the adherence to the FX Global Code of Conduct. Vendors are scored across nine criteria including functionality, connectivity, governance, stability, and customer service.

The results allow Citi FX team to partner closely with select vendors and assist in delivering clients’ priorities. Ayesa Latif, Global Head of FX Products at Citi said, “Ultimately, what we’re trying to achieve is improved connectivity, product offering, stability and how the market is operating. This will help benefit our clients, liquidity providers and all other market participants.”

FX venue proliferation and decline in ‘switcher’ sentiment

This year’s survey of 120 of our most active clients, across banks, corporates, asset managers and hedge fund managers – revealed the majority of clients are no longer searching for the perfect match in an FX provider, 87% were satisfied with their primary vendors, with 88% having enhancement requests, of which 52% were looking for core area improvements.

While proliferation of FX venues in the market has continued since the COVID pandemic, comparative results from our 2022 CitiFX Vendor Review show a drastic drop in clients seeking new vendors from 51% in 2022 to 19% in 2024. This could be a result of FX execution venues quickly becoming deeply customized and integrated to clients’ internal systems. While these solutions reduce manual touch points and mitigate operational risk, they may not be keeping up with client needs, leaving the client dependent on the existing technological solution. Switching to a new vendor takes time, cost and effort, creating a risk of ‘vendor lock-in’. The 2024 survey results show clients are heavily focused on existing providers improving FX management solutions, especially with workflow automation.

The review provides some reassurance that clients are not alone in their quest for improvements and helps identify where changes may be needed if they are to remain with their provider. The insight also helps guide their decisions, if choosing a new solution or thinking of changing vendor.

CitiFX Vendor Review roundtables events are scheduled for Singapore and Hong Kong, after being well attended in London with plans to expand to continental Europe.

Source: Citi