add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
UniCredit SpA (FWB: CRI, BIT: UCG) is an Italy-based, pan-European banking organization, with over 40 million customers and operations in 22 countries. UniCredit's core markets are Italy, Austria and Southern Germany, and it also has substantial operations in Central & Eastern Europe. Until May 2008 it was officially called UniCredito Italiano SpA; it is also known as the UniCredit Group and as UniCredito. The UniCredit Group has investment banking divisions in Munich and Frankfurt. In 2008 it had revenues of €26.866 billion.
[edit] UniCredit at a glanceUniCredit is a major international financial institution drawing from a range of core businesses and acquisitions that have strong roots in 22 European countries as well as representative offices in 27 other markets. During the 2008-09 financial crisis it was rescued by and is still being supported by the Italian central bank because of its high leverage, various exposures to so-far unrecognised securities losses and its high credit exposure to Eastern Europe. Many of these countries are suffering most in the 2008-09 recession, with accompanying large bad debts for banks lending to the most troubled economies. The bank will need to raise more capital and/or continue to shrink its assets as the 2009 G20 rules on bank leverage and equity capital ratios take effect. In 2007 UniCredit strengthened its position in Italy by integrating the Capitalia Group. UniCredit Group is the leader in Central and Eastern Europe with a market share that is double that of its closest competitors. In 2007 two important acquisitions were carried out: ATF Bank which ranks among the top five domestic banks in Kazakhstan offering a broad range of financial products through its branch network of 154 outlets throughout the country and the acquisition of Ukrsotsbank which is mainly oriented towards retail banking coupled with a solid presence in the corporate and SME sector. With these two banks the Group extended its operations in this area to 19 countries (including Central Asia). Key Figures Customers 40 million [edit] History of the GroupUniCredit Group was the outcome of the 1998 merger of Credito Italiano, Rolo Banca 1473 (formed in 1996 by the merger of Credito Romagnolo, Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Banca del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and buying of Banca Popolare del Molise) and Unicredito (Cariverona, Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto, Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste and Cassamarca) and in 1999 with Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto and Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste, and the subsequent combination with the German group HVB and Italy's Capitalia (Banca di Roma, Banco di Sicilia and Bipop Carire). In 1999, UniCredito Italiano, as it was then known, began its expansion in Central and Eastern Europe with the acquisition of Polish Bank Pekao. Growth continued over the next few years with the purchase of the Pioneer Investment group, and the subsequent formation of Pioneer Global Asset Management, and further strategic acquisitions in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Czech Republic and Turkey. In 2003, UniCredito Italiano completed its reorganisation plan, S3, by forming three banks in Italy, for individual market segments - UniCredit Banca, UniCredit Banca d’Impresa and UniCredit Private Banking - and with the creation of the New Europe Division. This reorganisation process made UniCredit the first bank in Italy to adopt a business model based on its divisions; this model is still operational today. In 2005, UniCredit merged with the German group HVB, itself formed in 1998 by the combination of two Bavarian banks: Bayerische Vereinsbank and Bayerische Hypotheken-und Wechsel-Bank, resulting in a single, major European bank. Integration with the HVB Group, reinforced by the merger with Bank Austria Creditanstalt in 2000 and its territorial establishment in many areas of the new Europe, enabled further growth for UniCredit Group, thus building on its own European vocation. Bank Austria Creditanstalt, is Austria's largest banking group. Bank Austria Creditanstalt is a major shareholder in Bank Medici AG. Following news on Friday 2nd January, that the Bank Medici had invested $2 billion with Bernard Madoff, Vienna appointed a supervisor to run the private bank. In 2007, by combination with the Capitalia Group, the third-largest Italian banking group, UniCredit Group consolidated and strengthened its position in one of its most important domestic markets, Italy. In 2008 and 2009 the company had serious financial troubles and needed the Italian government assistance because of the global financial crisis. Buried in the the Group's first half 2009 accounts, it disclosed it changed its accounting to avoid taking over €2 billion in mark to market writedowns to fair value on securities holdings. The Group has also stopped paying any cash dividend for 2008 on its ordinary shares and resorted to paying a scrip dividend instead. The Group's big exposure to Eastern European troubled economies is a problem. Capitalia was established in 2002 from the integration of two pre-existing entities, the Bancaroma group (in turn the result of the merger between the oldest Roman banks: Banco di Santo Spirito, Cassa di Risparmio di Roma, and Banco di Roma), and the Bipop-Carire Group. Apart from these two banks, the Group also controls the Banco di Sicilia Group, one of the oldest Italian banks, with a well-established base in Southern Italy; MCC (formerly MedioCredito Centrale); and Fineco, the first direct bank and first online broker in Italy. [edit] Corporate ResponsibilityUniCredit's efforts concerning Corporate Social Responsibility have been recognised in several ways, amongst others UCG’s inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability and FTSE4Good indices, and in the positive sustainability ratings UniCredit has received from rating agencies and investor associations. [edit] See also[edit] External links
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
