Citi has launched a digital ETF order portal in Hong Kong that enables participating dealers to place all creation and redemption orders online for exchange-traded funds administered by the bank.

The Advanced Citi ETF System (ACES) ETF Order Portal fully digitizes the entire ETF primary market life cycle. It includes workflows and a real-time trade status dashboard, both of which can be configured according to fund type and market.

The module builds on the existing ACES capability launched by Citi in January 2020 for the creation and distribution of ETF portfolio composition files (PCFs) for Hong Kong ETFs and is being refined to support end-to-end ETF services in more Asia-Pacific markets in 2021, the company notes. The PCF represents the basket of securities and cash that would be required to effect a creation or redemption on the next trading day.

The portal’s launch comes at a time when many market participants have staff working from home and are looking for digital solutions to replace manual processes that would otherwise require them to be physically present in their workplace.

Citi provides services to 133 ETFs for 23 issuers across the Asia-Pacific region.