FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)
February 01, 2007
Citigroup Foundation and ISMM Announce Winners of 2nd All-Russian Stock Market Quiz
Moscow – The Institute of Stock Market and Management (ISMM) and Citigroup Foundation summed up the results of the 2nd All-Russian Stock Market Quiz for secondary-school students. Pavel Levchenko (Samara) took first place, with Evgeniy Monastyrenko (Ekaterinburg) and Andrey Iskhanov (Omsk) winning second and third, respectively.
All finalists of the Quiz received documents certifying their participation in the contest, awards, gifts, and certificates that will enable them to train for free at the ISMM. The winners were also given the opportunity to visit the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange.
The awards ceremony, held on February 1, featured the leading financial market experts who came to congratulate the winners. These included Vladislav Streltsov, Deputy Head of the Federal Financial Markets Service of the Russian Federation; Igor Kostikov, Chairman of the Guardian Council, The Institute for Stock Market and Management Fund; Oleg Safonov, President of RTS Stock Exchange; Dmitry Ivakin, Deputy Director, Department for Stock Market, Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange; Olga Kudinova, Deputy Chairman, National Stock Market Association; Maria Yarnykh, Director, Chief Operating Officer of Equities, ZAO Citibank, and many others.
The 2nd All-Russian Stock Market Quiz for secondary-school students was held from March 2006 to February 2007. The objective of this project is to promote financial education among the younger generation, assist in the training of a pool of Russian stock market professionals, and to raise social awareness of financial education in general.
Over 420 ninth to eleventh grade students from many Russian cities sent in their answers to tests that were designed to show their knowledge of the stock market. Authors of the seventy most interesting papers received an opportunity to participate in the second stage of the Quiz in which students wrote economic essays covering one of the suggested topics. It is notable that the most popular topic among students was that covering mutual fund issues. Sixteen students successfully made it to the third stage and were invited to visit Moscow to participate in the final stage of the Quiz, which took place January 30 - 31, 2007.
Lilia Pilyugina, Director of Department for educational programs with The Institute for Stock Market and Management Fund, commented that all tasks were made in compliance with the current standards for training stock market specialists. “All problems were written by experts in the sphere of finance and stock markets. They have concrete grounding in accordance with the Federal Law “on investment funds,” Pilyugina said. Counting the scores chose finalists and winners.
Maria Yarnykh, Director, Chief Operating Officer of Equities, ZAO Citibank, said “It is our pleasure to report the high quality of works sent for the contest and to point out increased interest of the young generation in the securities market and gaining knowledge in this sphere. This confirms that in the next five to six years we can expect that the market can expect more skilled young people with an interest and will to learn and develop into experts of the Russian securities market”.
Additional information about the All-Russian Stock Market Quiz is available at www.ifru.ru by clicking on the “Security market for children” heading.
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The Institute of Stock Market and Management
The Institute of Stock Market and Management is a center for education and research in the area of financial markets, investments and marketing founded in 1997. The Institute engages in education and advanced training of securities market professionals. The specialists of the Institute serve as experts for the development of regulation for the activities of financial market players and institutions.
Citigroup
Citigroup (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management. Major brand names under Citigroup’s trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, and Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com.