Citi Selects Black-Owned Firms Exclusively to Distribute $2.5 Billion Bond Issuance

Banking giant Citi announced that it has worked exclusively with four Black-owned firms to jointly issue a $2.5 billion bond issuance in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This move further reinforced Citi's commitment to increasing racial equity in the capital markets and broader financial services sector.

Citi is no newcomer to the Racial Equity scene. Since 2015, Citi has worked with over 30 firms owned by underrepresented minorities, women and veterans totaling more than $150 billion in bond issuance.

A Citi GPS report which showed that U.S. GDP could increase by $5 trillion over the next five years if the key racial gaps for Black Americans in wages, housing, education and investment are closed today. In September 2020, Citi announced a multi-pronged $1 billion Action for Racial Equity initiative. The initiative was designed to help close the racial wealth gap in the United States. Through such comprehensive approach, Citi also strengthened its expansion of core business activities with minority-owned broker dealers and depository institutions.

For this transaction, Citi issued a $2.5 billion six-year non call 5-year fixed-to-floating rate note indexed to SOFR. The company selected four Black-owned financial firms, including Blaylock Van, LLC, CastleOak Securities, L.P., Global Oak Capital Markets and Loop Capital Markets LLC, to distribute the bonds which priced on January 21.