Citi Appointed to Provide Securities and Fund Services to Support the Launch of the First ETF in Colombia

Citi announced today that it has been appointed administrator, custodian, transfer agent and creation agent for the first exchange traded fund (ETF) in Colombia. The iShares® COLCAP ETF tracks the COLCAP Index, a market cap weighted index of the 20 most liquid stocks listed on the Colombia Securities Exchange, Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC). The fund was launched as part of the strategy to develop the Colombian Capital Markets and to introduce ETF products.

Citi provides custody, asset servicing, fund administration, fund accounting, valuation, performance and compliance monitoring, transfer agency as well as creation agent services and BlackRock performs the portfolio management and marketing functions.

“We were pleased to partner with Citi to help us define regulatory changes required for developing a successful ETF market in Colombia,” said Juan Pablo Cordoba, President of Bolsa de Valores de Colombia. “With Citi’s knowledge of the specialized needs of ETFs and local market presence, we readily had the infrastructure in place to support the launch of the first ETF product in Colombia.”

"We are excited that iShares COLCAP ETF furthers the collaboration between Citi and BlackRock in providing investors access to Latin America markets," said Daniel Gamba, CEO of BlackRock Latin America and Iberia.

As well as in Colombia, Citi supports ETF’s globally and in the Latin American markets of Brazil and Mexico.

“We were truly pleased to be selected to deliver our local and global capabilities in execution, custody and fund administration to support the launch of the first ETF in Colombia by BlackRock,” said Chandresh Iyer, Global Head of Investment Administration and Custody Services, Citi. "Through Citi’s more than 3,400 employees and local presence in Colombia since 1929, we are well-positioned to support the growth of the market with a full suite of industry-leading services.”

Through its Securities and Fund Services business, Citi’s industry-focused experts provide institutional investors worldwide with tailored solutions delivered through proven global platforms that feature modular, open architecture. With $13.5 trillion of assets under custody and the industry’s largest proprietary network, clients can leverage Citi’s local market expertise and global reach to extract value across the entire investment value chain.

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citigroup’s Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the second quarter of 2011, it held on average $365 billion in liability balances and $13.5 trillion in assets under custody.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com.

About BVC

The “Bolsa de Valores de Colombia” (“BVC”) is multiproduct exchange that collects the legacy from more than 80 years of stock market history in Colombia. In July of 2001 the exchanges of Bogota, Cali and Medellin were integrated to create a single Exchange, since then the BVC has administrated the capital market in Colombia. In July of 2007 BVC became a public listed company. BVC is recognized as an exemplary and innovative firm that has achieved high quality standards in the administration of the trading platforms for Equities, Fixed Income, Derivatives and Currencies, and also the OTC systems for Fixed Income and Currencies. Today, the BVC is moving forward with the market internationalization project, and is part, with Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago and Bolsa de Valores de Lima, of the Latin America Integrated Market MILA. For further information visit www.bvc.com.co.