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The local arm of battered US financial services giant Citigroup is continuing to streamline its local operations, yesterday saying it had reached an agreement that will see First NZ Capital provide it with back office services.
Citi New Zealand which three months ago downsized its local equities business, closing the Wellington research division and consolidating operations in Auckland, yesterday said First NZ would provide "on ground infrastructure and client servicing support for Citi's New Zealand Equities requirements".
Mark Fitzgerald, Citi's country officer for New Zealand, said First NZ would assume equities settlement and clearance duties for Citi here.
"We continue to provide our research coverage to our New Zealand investors, to maintain access to our global research, and we'll continue to market New Zealand equities to our global investors base."
Citi New Zealand provides a range of banking and transactional services. It also provides services to institutional investors in the equities and fixed income markets, as well as currency and commodity hedging. This month, Citigroup announced plans to split into two units after suffering a US$8.29 billion loss in the final quarter which took its losses over the past 15 months to more than US$28.5 billion.
Citigroup said it planned to divide into a business focused on banking, and another to include brokerage and retail asset management, consumer finance and troubled assets.
