Italy's UniCredit reports early completion of goal to wind down Russian business in 2025

MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - Italy's UniCredit exceeded its plan for winding down its business in Russia in 2024, and the contribution of its Russian subsidiary to the group's net profit will be minimal by 2027, according to a UniCredit presentation.

In April 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) issued a directive to several European banks to expedite the process of withdrawing their business from Russia. UniCredit said that it continues to implement its strategy for the accelerated winding down of its business.

In 2025, UniCredit planned to reduce its local credit portfolio (excluding loans to Russian subsidiaries of international groups) to less than 1 billion euros, its deposit portfolio to less than 2 billion euros, structured risks outside of Russia to nearly zero and cross-border payments to less than 8.5 billion euros. According to UniCredit's presentation, the group achieved three out of four goals in 2024. The credit portfolio at the end of last year was reduced to 1 billion euros, the deposit portfolio to 0.9 billion euros, and cross-border risks to 0.3 billion euros. The only goal that the group failed to meet early was related to the amount of cross-border payments, which in Q4 actually increased to 9.8 billion euros from 9.1 billion euros. UniCredit explained this quarterly growth in terms of one-off payments related to Western companies' repayment of debts.

UniCredit's Russian business earned a net profit of 577 million euros in 2024, down 13.4% compared to the previous year, while the group's total profit for the year amounted to 9.3 billion euros. It is expected that the share of the Russian business in the group's net profit will be minimal by 2027.

According to UniCredit's presentation, the group has reduced its retail business in Russia by more than 50% (based on the number of clients) and is aiming for a complete winding down of its business.

UniCredit Bank ranked 20th by asset size in the Interfax-100 ranking for 2024, having reduced its assets to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) by almost 30% to 799.5 billion rubles. The bank's net profit for the past year amounted to 40.8 billion rubles, down 30%.