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 (banks from
Turin,
Verona and
Treviso) and
Credito Italiano (consists of
Rolo Banca,
Banca Popolare di Rieti), 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 (Caritro),
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 (HVB), 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 (effective on July 1, 2025)
Banca dell'Umbria and
Cassa di Risparmio di Carpi were absorbed into the parent company. In 2006 the securities services business of UniCredit (2S Banca, now Société Générale Security Services S.p.A.) was sold to
Société Générale for €579.3 million. In 2006, minority interests in the savings banks of
Bra (31.021%),
Fossano (23.077%),
Saluzzo (31.019%) and
Savigliano (31.006%) 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 (by total assets in 2006;
Sanpaolo IMI and
Banca Intesa were counted as one entity as the banks also merged in 2007). The registered office of the bank was also relocated from Genoa (inherited from
Credito Italiano) 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 (including Central Asia). 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 (
sofferenze) to various investors, namely
PRA Group Europe (€625 million gross), a fund managed by
Cerberus Capital Management (€100 million gross), a US fund (€150 million gross),
AnaCap Financial Partners (€420 million gross),
Fortress Investment Group and
PIMCO (€17.7 billion gross; UniCredit retained a minority stake in the
securitization SPV),
B2 Kapital (€110 million in gross from
Slovenian subsidiary) and
B2Holding (€93 million from
UniCredit Bulbank). In October 2015, UniCredit also sold UniCredit Credit Management Bank (now
doBank), the subsidiary that specialized in managing NPLs to
Fortress Investment Group and
Prelios S.p.A. A portfolio of €2.4 billion (in gross book value) 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 (or from €52.143 billion to €51.089 billion in gross). 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 (ECB) Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP) lowed the CET1 ratio (transitional basis) 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 (fully loaded basis) 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 (the last was
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena). 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. 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. 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% (even though the new acquisition of a 11,5% stake in Commerzbank need an ECB approval to be settled) 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 (Germany's antitrust authority) 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 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. On 16 March 2026, UniCredit officially launched a €35bn takeover bid on
Commerzbank, which consists in a voluntary exchange offer valuing Commerzbank at around €35bn and with the stated aim of increasing its stake in the German lender beyond the 30% threshold. == buddybank ==