UniCredit S.p.A.

Pier Carlo Padoan has announced he will leave at the end of his contract in about six months for personal reasons. Unicredit has launched a search for a new chair of the supervisory board; in Italy there is speculation about possible German- or German-speaking candidates, partly because of the Commerzbank takeover and the bank’s large German business involvement. The selection process will be led by the nominations committee and is also being influenced informally by political considerations. Padoan, a former economy minister and long-time networker, had a positive effect on the share price during his tenure. » More on faz.net

The ECB has approved UniCredit’s increase of its stake in Commerzbank beyond the 30 percent threshold and, according to the bank, allowed further acquisitions without an upper limit. The central bank warns of a challenging and lengthy integration process but does not oppose the transaction. UniCredit views the decision as an important milestone and expects to obtain the remaining antitrust and supervisory approvals by year‑end to reach around 50% of voting rights and thus gain control. UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel plans to implement UniCredit’s lower‑cost business model at Commerzbank, which is likely to include a reduction of the foreign network. » More on deraktionaer.de

The ECB has approved Unicredit’s use of the Danish Compromise for consolidating insurance holdings, which will relieve the bank’s common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio by about 52 basis points from Q3 2026. The rule allows banks to treat insurance stakes as risk-weighted assets instead of fully deducting them from capital, increasing lending headroom, buying power and competitiveness in acquisitions such as the planned Commerzbank integration. Insurers like Allianz view this as a competitive distortion because they generally must hold more capital for similar activities under Solvency II. Regulators currently limit the relief to insurance business, but banks are testing the boundaries of its application across other group structures. » More on handelsblatt.com