UniCredit


UniCredit S.p.A. is an Italian multinational banking group headquartered in Milan. It is a systemically important bank and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was formed through the merger of Credito Italiano and Unicredito in 1998 but has a corporate identity stretching back to its first foundation in 1870 as Banca di Genova. UniCredit is listed on the Borsa Italiana and Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is a constituent stock of the Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading shares.
With corporate & investment banking, commercial banking and wealth management operations, Unicredit is a pan-European bank with a strong presence in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Through its European banking network, it provides access to market-leading products and services in 13 core markets: Italy, Germany as HypoVereinsbank, Austria as Bank Austria, Russia and nine other Central and Southeast European countries.
UniCredit has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

History

Founding through mergers and growth (1998–2006)

UniCredit was the outcome of the 1998 merger of several Italian banking groups, which the majority one were Unicredito and Credito Italiano, hence the name UniCredito Italiano. Credito Italiano issued about 38.46% new shares to the owners of Unicredito, and renamed itself to Unicredito Italiano. Other banks such as Banca dell'Umbria, Cassa di Risparmio di Carpi, Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto, Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste also joined the group in 1998–2000. A new subsidiary was also created in December 1999 which was named after the original Credito Italiano.
In 1999, UniCredito Italiano, as it was then known, began its expansion in Eastern Europe with the acquisition of Polish company Bank Pekao. On 30 June 2002, UniCredit started its S3 project which merged 7 of their bank network: Rolo Banca, Banca CRT, Cariverona Banca, Cassamarca, Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto and Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste into Credito Italiano, and Credito Italiano was renamed into UniCredit Banca. UniCredit Private Banking and UniCredit Banca d'Impresa was spin off from it in 2003.
In 2005, UniCredit merged with the German group HypoVereinsbank, which is itself formed in 1998 by the combination of two Bavarian banks: Bayerische Vereinsbank and Bayerische Hypotheken-und Wechsel-Bank.
Integration with the HVB Group was reinforced by the merger with Bank Austria Creditanstalt in the year 2000 and enabled further growth for the UniCredit Group.
Additionally, Bank Austria Creditanstalt was a major shareholder in Bank Medici AG. Bank Medici was Thema Fund's investment manager. In return for finding investors, Bank Medici collected fees of 4.6 million euros from Thema International Fund in 2007. Following the news that Bank Medici had invested US$2 billion with Bernard Madoff, officials in Vienna appointed a supervisor to run the private bank, raising questions about control of the sprawling group.
On 30 June 2005 Banca dell'Umbria and Cassa di Risparmio di Carpi were absorbed into the parent company.
In 2006 the securities services business of UniCredit was sold to Société Générale for €579.3 million.
In 2006, minority interests in the savings banks of Bra, Fossano, Saluzzo and Savigliano were sold for about €149 million to Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna.

Acquisition of Capitalia, 2008 financial crisis, and its consequences (2007–2017)

In 2007, in combination with the Capitalia Group, the fourth-largest Italian banking group. The registered office of the bank was also relocated from Genoa to 17 via Minghetti, Rome.
In the same year, two more acquisitions were carried out: ATF Bank, which ranks fifth out of domestic banks in Kazakhstan with 154 branches, and Ukrsotsbank, a universal bank in Ukraine. With these two banks, the Group extended its operations in this area to 19 countries. However, in November 2012, Kazakh government sources declared UniCredit is in talks with Kazakh investors over the sale of a controlling stake in ATF Bank.
In 2010, UniCredit S.p.A. absorbed its Italian banking subsidiaries: UniCredit Banca, Banca di Roma and Banco di Sicilia.
In 2013 UniCredit Finance reported that they would no longer provide banking services in Latvia.
On March 14, 2014, UniCredit announced that it expected to cut around 8,500 jobs in the future, together with the announcement of a $15 billion loss in the 4th quarter of 2013 due to extensive cash-reserving for bad loans and writing down goodwill from acquisitions. UniCredit is one of the 6 European banks which are currently most exposed to potential problems in the emerging markets.
In April 2015 UniCredit and Banco Santander reached a preliminary agreement to merge their asset-management businesses in a transaction valuing the combined entity at about €5.4 billion. However, the deal was terminated on 27 July 2016. Nevertheless, Pioneer was sold in December 2016 to Amundi for €3.545 billion. UniCredit also received an extraordinary dividend of €315 million from Pioneer.
From June 2015 to January 2017 UniCredit sold its NPLs that was doubtful to collect to various investors, namely PRA Group Europe, a fund managed by Cerberus Capital Management, a US fund, AnaCap Financial Partners, Fortress Investment Group and PIMCO, B2 Kapital and B2Holding. In October 2015, UniCredit also sold UniCredit Credit Management Bank, the subsidiary that specialized in managing NPLs to Fortress Investment Group and Prelios S.p.A. A portfolio of €2.4 billion NPLs was included in the deal. On a year to year basis, the net value of sofferenze had increased from €19.701 billion on 31 December 2014 to €19.924 billion on 31 December 2015.
In December 2016 UniCredit sold Polish bank Bank Pekao. UniCredit had already sold part of the stake in FinecoBank in mid 2016, as well as sold Ukrainian bank Ukrsotsbank to Alfa Group in January 2016. In December 2016, the card business in Italy, Germany and Austria was sold to SIA for €500 million.
On 13 December 2016, despite the annual European Central Bank Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process lowed the CET1 ratio requirement of UniCredit from 9.75% to 8.75%, the bank announced a massive €13 billion recapitalization of the bank, as well as €8.1 billion loan loss provisions and net restructuring charges of €1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. In the 2016 European Union bank stress test announced on 29 July, UniCredit's CET1 ratio was predicted at 7.10% in the adverse scenario on 31 December 2018, which was the second last among the big 5 Italian banks that participated in the stress test. Based on the 2016 SREP, UniCredit Group has required a fully load basis CET1 ratio of 10.5% from 1 January 2019 due to an increase in Capital Conservation Buffer and global systemically important bank buffer as required by CRR and CRD IV. Moreover, the pillar 2 guidance: the additional capital that ECB suggested the bank to keep, was remained confidential.
In January 2017 10 old ordinary shares were combined into 1 new ordinary share, as well as bearer savings share and registered savings share. On April 6, 2017, UniCredit issued its first bond in the United States in a decade. In mid-2017, a capital increase was completed as well as securitization and partial disposal of the NPLs of the bank. In December 2017, the savings share of the bank was converted to the ordinary share, as well as the removal of the 5% cap on voting rights for each entity.

Expansion with a new round of acquisitions (2023-25)

In October 2023, UniCredit announced that it would become the largest investor in Alpha Bank, buying a 9% stake in the Greek bank and taking over its Romanian subsidiary.
On 11 September 2024, UniCredit announced that it had purchased a 9% stake in Commerzbank. Half of the stake was bought on the open market; the other half was bought from the German government, which sold a part of the stake it owns since the 2008 financial crisis and bailout of Commerzbank. UniCredit also announced that it has asked for the ECB regulatory approval to raise its stake in Commerzbank beyond 9,9% in a move widely understood as the first step of a potential takeover of Germany’s second-largest private-sector bank by UniCredit. On 23 September 2024, UniCredit stated that it increased its stake in Commzerbank to 21% and has submitted a request to the ECB to increase its stake to 12,9%.
On December 18, 2024, Unicredit increased its stake in Commerzbank to 28%. The German government called the move uncoordinated and hostile.
On 25 November 2024, UniCredit launched a €10.1bn takeover bid for Banco BPM.
On 2 February 2025, UniCredit owned 4.1% of Generali.
On 9 March 2025, UniCredit closed a deal to acquire Belgium-based digital bank Aion Bank, as well as Vodeno, Aion's cloud-native core banking system, for €376 million. In October 2025, UniCredit discarded the brand 'Aion Bank' and renamed its activies as 'UniCredit Belgium' and 'UniCredit Poland'.
On 14 March 2025, the ECB gave its regulatory approval to UniCredit for the increase of its stake in Commerzbank to up to 29.9% and, a month later, the Federal Cartel Office also approved UniCredit's plan to raise its stake in Commerzbank to 29.9%. In July 2025, UniCredit announced that it had increased its stake in Commerzbank to 20%.
On April 3, 2025, UniCredit is expected to receive conditional approval from the government for its €14 billion all-share takeover bid for smaller rival Banco BPM. The government is reviewing the deal under its "golden powers," which enables it to set conditions on takeovers in strategic sectors. While the conditions are still unspecified, they are not expected to pose significant obstacles. The review should conclude by the end of April, but UniCredit has until June 30 to consider their options and decide whether to proceed with the offer.
On April 11, 2025, UniCredit joined a European Banking Federation task force to support defense and security investments. Led by CEO Andrea Orcel, the move strengthens the bank's role in financing Europe’s strategic autonomy amid rising geopolitical tensions.
In May 2025, UniCredit announced a 10-year partnership with Google Cloud aimed at modernizing the bank's IT infrastructure and supporting its digital transformation strategy. At the end of May 2025, UniCredit indirectlt increased its stake in Alpha Bank from 9.7% to 20% and further increased its stake to 26% in August 2025. In January 2026, UniCredit converted its synthetic stake in Alpha Bank Stake into a direct holding of 29.8% of Alpha Bank's capital.