Unicredit it left the list of global systemic banks compiled by Financial Stability Board (FSB), the financial governance body of the G20. Also out of the list is Swiss credit after being acquired last March by Swiss rival Ubs.
The bank led by Andrea Orcel was inserted in the place la cinese China’s Bank of Communications which becomes part of systemic banks for the first time in its history. The total number of systemic banks considered as such by the FSB has thus decreased, as a result of these changes, from 30 units in 2022 to 29.
Global systemically important banks are assigned to “buckets” corresponding to higher capital buffers that they are required to hold by national authorities in accordance with international standards.
Who are the other banks on the list
Going into detail, in quinto level, the highest, does not include any institute. In the quarto level there is only JP Morgan Chase. In the third level there are Bank of America, Citigroup and HSBC.
In the second livello ci sono: Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Barclays, BNP Paribas, China Construction Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mitsubishi UFJ FG e UBS.
In the primo level, the largest one, there are: Bank of Communications (BoCom), Bank of New York Mellon, Groupe BPCE, Groupe Crédit Agricole, ING, Mizuho FG, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada, Santander, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui FG, Toronto Dominion, Wells Fargo.
What happens now to Unicredit
For now, no comment has been released by Unicredit, so far the only Italian bank to be considered systemic by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), but the exit of the institute in favor of a Chinese operator makes it clear how the credit risk is shifting towards the East and above all towards Beijing, where tensions are strong at the moment in the real estate sector.
It is worth remembering that the FSB began compiling its annual ranking of systemically important banks after the 2008 global financial crisis, asking the world‘s most important banks to set aside an extra cushion of capital.
This means that resources will be freed up in Unicredit’s balance sheet which the institution can use to strengthen its position in Italy and abroad, perhaps through acquisitions. Inclusion in the list entails an additional capital reserve for banks compared to the general rules which varies from 1 to 3.5%. Unicredit was at the low end of the ranking with a request of 1%.
Meanwhile, on Piazza Affari the stock remains little moved, marking a drop of 0.84% to 24.91 euros, still just a breath away from the historic highs.