ECB forces UniCredit to leave Russia

The Italian bank UniCredit and the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International remain two banking groups that continue to conduct large financial transactions in Russia. Against this background, the European Central Bank and UniCredit have some tension due to the bank's unwillingness to wind down its activities in the Russian Federation and plans to pay more funds to its shareholders. 

Andrea Orcel, UniCredit's chief executive officer, said that he «felt strong pressure from the ECB» about the bank's activities in Russia, since the European central bank considers UniCredit's presence in Russia as an undesirable source of risk.

The fact that the bank may leave the Russian market, Orchel said in March of this year. In April, the first reports appeared that UniCredit intends to sell the business in Russia. To date, the Italian bank has ruled out the possibility of selling the Russian division to an entrepreneur from Russia and is negotiating with buyers in China, India and Turkey. 

Recall that the first disagreements between the ECB and UniCredit arose back in April 2021, when the Italian bank was headed by Orcel, who implemented an aggressive strategy to review the bank's operations and increase dividends. As the media reported at that time, the regulator objected to UniCredit's commitment to pay shareholders €16 billion by 2024, as this contradicts some ECB instructions (in particular, that banks should not determine their dividend policy in terms of absolute values). However, Orcel said that UniCredit has the ability to pay shareholders more without significantly disrupting the balance sheet.