The ability to offer direct market access to securities on the Moscow Exchange has been facilitated by a number of recent market structure developments. The exchange has migrated to T+2 trade settlement and has established central clearing as well as a centralised trade depository.

"We are delighted to be able to bring electronic trading and DMA on the Moscow Exchange to our clients. The exchange has recently introduced a series of structural enhancements which have significantly improved the trading and settlement process in this market. We have been thoroughly preparing our platform for these changes and are pleased to be one of the first brokers to offer electronic trading on this venue to clients," said Andrew Thompson, Citi's EMEA Head of Equities.

Andrey Shemetov, Deputy CEO of Moscow Exchange commented: "Our migration to T+2 marks a new phase of Moscow's integration into the group of the main global financial centres. Investors from around the world can now trade Russian assets directly in a more convenient way. As we look ahead our key objectives are to further modernize our infrastructure, broaden our product offering and increase liquidity across our markets".

Citi Russia has fully-fledged local investment banking capabilities as well as integrated equity brokerage operations. ZAO Citibank was one of the first banks with foreign capital to enter the Russian market back in 1992.