11 Nov 2002: Citigroup Selects Integral for FX System Technology

Citigroup has selected Mountain View, Calif.-based Integral to supply the underlying XML-based technology for the banking group’s CitiFX White Label foreign exchange dealing service. The service is targeted at the corporate marketplace, and allows financial institutions to offer foreign exchange transactions over the Internet.

Integral will be supplying its Integral Direct FX infrastructure to support the Citigroup service. The company has patented the real-time, global infrastructure technology. Integral will also handle all hosting of the system, ensuring confidentiality for participating banks and their customers.

An Integral spokesman says the system makes use of a number of XML-based standards. “CitiFX White Label was created using FinXML,” he says. FinXML is Integral’s own XML schema for capital markets and straight-through-processing. “Integral built an adaptor to Citi’s FXML protocol to communicate all the data, prices, confirmations, etc. The system also communicates with all the regional banks via XML, if they are capable of handling it.”

Several mid-sized and regional banks have opted to use CitiFX White Label as the basis for their electronic foreign exchange trading services. According to Vikas Srivastava, global head of e-commerce at Citigroup’s foreign exchange division, “By partnering with Integral to develop and deploy this system, we ensure clients will receive a market-leading technology platform that is independently hosted and managed, consistent with Citigroup’s rigorous standards.”

The result is a cost-effective route to market for medium-sized banks, according to Harpal Sandhu, president and CEO of Integral. “When you include the hosting and web-based delivery, nothing comes close in terms of cost, time-to-market and flexibility to meet changing business needs,” he says.