ING and Santander Partner with Citi to Join the Trade MAPS Program

Citi today announced that ING Bank and Santander will be co-sponsoring the Trade MAPS Multi-Bank Global Trade Program. During Sibos 2010, Citi’s Global Transaction Services announced the launch of a multi-bank trade program aimed at helping trade banks support global trade and grow their trade finance portfolios. The program addresses many challenges facing the market: capital management, liquidity, credit constraints and the new capital requirements imposed by Basel II and III.

The program offers trade banks the ability to fund originated trade finance assets in a capital and balance sheet efficient manner through issuances of asset backed securities and commercial paper. Trade MAPS enables partner banks to increase the velocity of their capital dedicated to the trade markets, helping to mitigate the impact of Basel II and III by enabling a true sale of trade finance assets.

Emmeline Wexer, Head of Trade Asset Advisory at Citi points out the importance of this partnership: “We value our partnership with ING and Santander as they are both prominent trade banks with a global footprint. We will leverage our complementary portfolios to most efficiently tap the market for alternative US dollar funding.”

Juultje van der Wijk, Global Head of Trade Finance Services at ING, explains “Three top tier banks contributing assets to the underlying trade asset portfolio ensures the diversified portfolio of high quality short term funded dollar assets. This is critical in a market where dollar liquidity funding is a priority for trade banks.”

“The program ensures that we can increase the support to our clients in their international expansion, at the same time that we respond to current investor demand of high quality assets,” says Jorge Tapia, Global Head of Trade, Export & Commodity Finance at Santander.

Given the recent market events, this program is even more relevant. Efficient dollar liquidity funding for trade banks is a pressing concern given the market’s volatility and global economic uncertainty. Credit continues to be scarce and cost of funding for many banks is on the rise.

“The program is designed to benefit the broader industry by establishing an origination and funding platform for trade banks with global market positions, creating a highly diversified and granular pool of assets ultimately translating into access to a new and wider investor base,” explains John Ahearn, Global Head of Trade at Citi.

The program continues to expand and has recently added Commerzbank as a partner bank.

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 | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://new.citi.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

About ING

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of a broad customer base. Going forward, we will concentrate on our position as an international retail, direct and commercial bank, while creating an optimal base for an independent future for our insurance and investment management operations.

About Santander

Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N, BNC.LN) is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with a presence in 10 main markets. Santander is the largest bank in the euro zone and tenth in the world by market capitalization. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1,374 billion in managed funds, more than 100 million customers, 14,679 branches – more than any other international bank – and 190,000 employees at the close of June 2011. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America. Furthermore, it has significant positions in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Poland and the U.S. northeast. Santander Consumer Finance operates in the Group’s core markets as well as in the Nordic region. In the first half of 2011, Grupo Santander registered €3,501 million in net attributable profit.