Citi launches Total Touch in Europe amid block demand

Citi has launched its block trading offering for equities, currently available across the US, to the European market.

Citi has launched its block trading offering for equities, currently available across the US, to the European market.

The Total Touch platform will cover 560 symbols across European equity markets and aims to make block execution more efficient for institutional investors.

Total Touch is already available in the US market for 3,000 securities and links traditional high-touch services with convenient electronic execution.

Citi said client demand in Europe was focused on finding opportunities to execute in size. Buy-side firms are looking to block trade in response to regulatory changes that will place restrictions on dark trading and encourage more use of blocks via the large-in-scale waiver.

“The evolution in the European equity markets creates an opportunity to add more sophisticated trading practices to the region,” said Steve Garrard, head of execution services for Citi in EMEA “Leveraging Citi’s execution capabilities and local footprint, we are able to respond to client demands for electronic execution with price protection and ultimately help prevent slippage in fast moving situations.”

The service enables human traders to provide their expertise while also utilising advantages of electronic trading. It can re-aggregate liquidity at block level, which Citi said makes it easier to execute in size while getting improved prices.

Earlier this week, London Stock Exchange made changes to its auction process for smaller stock in order to better facilitate investor demand for block trading and improve liquidity.

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