Citi has entered into an alliance with BlackRock, through its Aladdin business, to enhance the delivery of securities services for mutual clients. Citi will provide outsourced middle office services directly on a client’s instance of Aladdin for integration with their front office, from trade confirmation to post settlement reconciliation.
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 BlackRock’s asset management business and provide an enhanced level of service to members of the broader Aladdin community.
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. The connection to BlackRock’s Aladdin Provider network advances Citi’s strategy to use technology to achieve operational efficiencies across their custody and fund services platform. Citi’s Clarity platform facilitates comprehensive data integration and consumption with real-time APIs and visualizations.
Sanjiv Sawhney, global head of Custody and Fund Services at Citi, said in a statement: “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.”
Fiona Horsewill, head of Global Digital and Data Strategy for Citi Custody and Fund Services, said in a statement: “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.”