Citibank denies advance word on euro intervention

12:35p EDT Thursday, September 28, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Citibank/euro buy story is getting around.
Here's Reuters' version, which is incorrectly
headlined. The headline says Citibank has no comment
on the story, but Citibank indeed does comment in it
and denies advance knowledge of the government
interventions to support the euro.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Thursday, September 28, 12 p.m. Eastern Time

Citibank no comment on report of euro buying Friday

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) -- Citibank on Thursday
declined comment on a newspaper report that it
bought euros last Friday on behalf of a U.S. hedge
fund, acting ahead of intervention by central banks'
to support the euro.

quot;We do not comment on individual client
transactions,quot; Leah Johnson, a Citigroup spokeswoman
in New York, said. quot;No individual at Citigroup had
advance knowledge of last week's intervention in the
euro market.quot;

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on
Thursday that a hedge fund allegedly knew about the
European Central Bank's plans to intervene in
currency markets hours before the ECB and other
major central banks began buying euros.

It cited Frankfurt banking sources as saying that
major currency player Citibank allegedly started
buying euros on behalf of the U.S. hedge fund on
Friday morning, helping the euro climb ahead of the
intervention.

The newspaper said that the information about the
planned intervention allegedly came from a non-
eurozone central bank.

A spokesman for the ECB also declined comment on the
report.

On Friday, September 22, the ECB announced that it
intervened jointly with the U.S. Federal Reserve and
the Bank of Japan to support the euro because of
concern about the recent weakness of the currency.