Jean-Pierre Mustier leaves the Bank Austria parent due to differences over the group strategy.
Andrea Orcel.
The Italian bank Unicredit gets a new boss. The former top UBS investment banker Andrea Orcel should head the institute in the future, the money house announced on Wednesday evening in Rome after a board meeting.
On April 15th, shareholders will vote on the Board of Directors renewal list. The committee then wants to confirm Orcel's appointment.
Litigation with Santander
Orcel is an experienced and sought-after bank manager. In 2018, the native Italian quit his job as head of the investment division of the Swiss bank UBS and raised his hopes for the chief position at Banco Santander. The Spaniards withdrew the offer completely surprisingly – the case then ended up in court at the instigation of the manager.
The chief post at the Bank Austria parent company became vacant after the previous UniCredit director Jean Pierre Mustier threw in the towel at the end of November due to differences with the board of directors over the group's strategy. Unicredit had been looking for a replacement for weeks.
According to insiders, the investment banker Andrea Orcel should take over the chief position at UniCredit without any legacy. He will not start the job until April, in the meantime to settle the multi-million dollar legal dispute with the Spanish financial institution Santander over unpaid salary, people familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
In the process, which is scheduled for March 10, Orcel is ready for concessions. Instead of 112 million euros, he wants only 60 million euros from Santander.
interregnum
That would mean the Italian Bank Austria parent UniCredit would be without a boss for a few weeks. According to insiders, CEO Jean Pierre Mustier will vacate his position after the balance sheet figures have been submitted on February 11th.
According to insiders, until Orcel finally takes over the top position at UniCredit, he will act as a kind of advisor for the Italians. Because at UniCredit far-reaching decisions are pending: The government is urging the institute to take over the crisis bank Monte dei Pasci. The previous UniCredit boss Mustier had strictly rejected this and other mergers and decided to withdraw.
