UniCredit’s Orcel takes charge of Italy in domestic drive

Andrea Orcel, then UBS main executive, leaves following attending a British isles parliamentary inquiry into Libor desire charges in London January 9, 2013. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

MILAN, July 6 (Reuters) – UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel has taken direct obligation for working the Italian bank’s domestic organization, an internal memo confirmed, just after the board taken off Niccolo Ubertalli as its head.

Ubertalli’s shock ousting arrives around a yr right after he was appointed as head of Italy and follows the the latest exits of other prolonged-standing senior UniCredit executives.

Orcel, previous head of expense banking at Swiss bank UBS (UBSG.S), took more than as UniCredit’s main govt in April 2021 and established about reshuffling its senior administration workforce, including by bringing in former UBS colleagues.

Ubertalli, who experienced been tipped as an inner candidate to the CEO job when Orcel received the work, did not instantly reply to a ask for of remark.

UniCredit, which is Italy’s 2nd most significant bank, is nevertheless going through a phase of internal adjustment underneath the new leadership group, a few people with knowledge of the make any difference claimed.

The board’s selection to strip Ubertalli of his role with quick impact follows friction about tactic, the folks reported, requesting anonymity offered the sensitivity of the make any difference.

As Italy-based mostly group CEO, Orcel by now performs duties that in other international locations the place UniCredit operates are completed by area CEOs, this kind of as meetings with big corporate clients or government ministers, one more two individuals shut to the matter stated.

Reversing a determination by his predecessor to operate Italy as component of a Western Europe commercial banking division which include Germany and Austria, Orcel had entrusted it to Ubertalli, who was then the co-head of Central Japanese Europe.

Right after Jean Pierre Mustier’s attempts to distance UniCredit from its personal debt-laden residence current market, which the former CEO noticed as a source of vulnerability, Orcel had promised rather a renewed aim on Italy and has been doing the job to regain industry share.

“We are prepared to additional greatly enhance Italy’s existence at a group stage, enabling it to shift more rapidly in its transformation … whilst navigating the envisioned risky ecosystem,” the internal memo viewed by Reuters said.

“As this sort of, the board has determined to make the part of Head of Italy component of the team CEO’s direct remit,” it included.

The determination over Ubertalli follows the departure of UniCredit’s Chief Functioning Officer Ranieri de Marchis in May and that of Andrea Maffezzoni, UniCredit’s head of functionality management and former M&A main in June.

“The achievement of Italy is essential to the achievements of our
group … Bringing our Italian organization below the remit of the team CEO will cement this alignment,” Chairman Pier Carlo Padoan and Orcel mentioned in the concept to staff.

Remo Taricani, the head of UniCredit’s industrial community in Italy, will assistance Orcel by becoming deputy head of Italy.

Reporting by Valentina Za Enhancing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alexander Smith

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