Andrea Orcel continues in his work of simplifying UniCredit with Italy increasingly at the center of the plan of the new CEO. Today Unicredit Italia takes shape, the new territorial division is part of the broader reorganization underway with the first line of each business and geographical area that has been redesigned “to reduce overlapping and complexity, while maintaining well-defined control and supervision functions, with the ‘objective of further improving overall efficiency ”. The individual structures are redesigned with the aim of guaranteeing faster levels of execution and decision-making skills as well as promoting operational excellence, facilitating even stronger links between management, customers and the communities in which the bank operates.
“Today’s announcement is another step towards achieving our goal of simplifying and reducing the complexity that has characterized our business for too long. It is the beginning of a process of greater accountability, which will allow us to unlock all the value inherent in our Group, in order to better serve our customers and our communities “, commented Andrea Orcel, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit. “Part of this simplification journey includes the creation of UniCredit Italia, which becomes an autonomous geography with full powers, alongside Germany, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. A choice that underlines not only the importance of our heritage and our roots, but also the strength of a perfectly integrated pan-European business model, which has no equal “.
Among the novelties at Unicredit there is also the focus on the managerial team in terms of diversity, with a greater female presence at the GEC level (from 15% to 40%) and introducing a wider variety of nationalities represented.
Orcel dilutes expectations on M&A
In letter to the employees of the group, Orcel confirms the desire to release as much value as possible from what is already in Unicredit, with any extraordinary transactions indicated as an accelerator. “At the moment, I want to focus on our Bank, on the resources within our Group: this is where our true value lies, and for this we must strive to unleash our potential. As I said from the beginning, external opportunities are only an accelerator, but it is by focusing on our business, simplifying it, optimizing and redefining our structures that we can truly put our customers at the center of what we do “, writes the former banker. UBS famous for its ability to weave M&A deals.
Ubertalli at the helm of Italy
The new UniCredit Italia is led by Antonio Ubertalli, appointed Head of Italy. The business areas on which the new UniCredit Italia will focus are: the area Individuals, driven by Barbara Tamburini, which caters to Mass Market, Affluent and Private customers; the area Businesses, driven by Andrea Casini, which manages small, medium and large companies; the area Corporate and Investment Banking Italia (CIB Italia), driven by Alfredo De Falco.
Customers are served by two complementary networks for the distribution of services and products:
o la Physical Distribution Network it guarantees proximity and relationship services throughout the territory and is organized in 7 Regions: North West, Lombardy, North East, Center-North Italy, Central Italy, South Italy and Sicily;
or the structure dedicated to Alternative Distribution Channels deals with remote channels, UniCredit Direct, buddybank and ATM.
The other two territorial divisions
As for the other territorial divisions, the Germany will be under the leadership of Michael Diederich as Head of Germany and by the management board of HVB. Markus Beumer and Jan Kupfer respectively lead the areas dedicated to companies and CIB Germany; the new head of the Individuals area will be announced in the coming weeks.
The division Central and Eastern Europe includes Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia under the leadership of Gianfranco Bisagni. Eastern Europe, led by Teodora Petkova, includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia. The CEOs of the banks in the individual countries remain unchanged. The Retail CE & EE structure, led by Pierre Yves Guegan, and the CIB CE & EE structure, led by Fabio Fornaroli, report to Gianfranco Bisagni and Teodora Petkova, who also hold joint responsibility for Russia.
All the geographies of the Group (Italy, Germany, Central and Eastern Europe) are equipped with dedicated support functions such as: People and Culture, Finance, Digital & Information Office e Operations. Furthermore, within the functions of Compliance, Legal e Risk structures dedicated to individual geographies have been created.