MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit will significantly improve its guidance for the current year when it presents third quarter results after hitting distribution goals on 2021, the Italian bank’s CEO said, expressing confidence also on next year.
Speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference in London, Andrea Orcel said UniCredit was well placed to face the economic slowdown that lied ahead.
Orcel said UniCredit had embarked on an industrial transformation which gave it commercial momentum, had ample provisions to absorb new impaired loans and could offset any weakness in fee income thanks to net interest margin.
He also said the bank had another buffer “unique to UniCredit” to absorb possible shocks which it would discuss with third quarter results.
“All of this has allowed us to deliver on promises for 2021 … and 2022 given the guidance we have given you and that we will substantially upgrade in Q3,” he said, adding this “gives us confidence to do so also in 2023 given the lines of defence and momentum we have”.
(Reporting by Valentina Za; editing by Agnieszka Flak)
