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IN THE retail banking space, Citibank Singapore has been revered to be the preferred choice when it comes to banking services. However, that leaves little to be said of their e-brokerage platform (trading US and Singapore shares).
Visa International was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. When I logged in to execute a trade, Citibank Singapore's e-brokerage platform was not able to support it. When I spoke to the CitiPhone officers, I was informed that Citibank Singapore has not set up arrangements with the Clearing House and that the US side has not cleared them for trading.
What baffles me is that Citibank, being the world's largest financial institution and, more importantly, playing a key role as one of the underwriters (refer to http://www.corporate.visa.com/md/nr/press745.jsp), is informing me that they have no access to V:NYSE and this counter may only be set up today. Trading desks of financial institutions are trading the counter right now and the volume as at 23.30 (GMT+08:00) on Wednesday is at 122,211,450. As consumers, while Citibank's trading desks may be trading the counter right now, we are clearly at the mercy of institutions to provide us access to the market.
To say that I am extremely disappointed with Citibank Singapore is an understatement. This is not the first time I have experienced problems with their brokerage platform.
Chuan Xiang Loh
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