MILAN (Reuters) – (This Dec. 11 story has been corrected to show that the core capital threshold rose due to other components, not because of the buffer set by the ECB, in the headline and text, and to include the reference to the Systemic Risk Buffer for Intesa in paragraph 2.)
UniCredit, Italy’s second largest bank, said on Wednesday its bank-specific core capital requirement had risen to 10.27% for 2025, up from the 10.03% minimum level set for 2024.
Earlier on Wednesday, Italy’s largest lender Intesa Sanpaolo said its minimum core capital requirement for 2025 had been set at 9.89%, up from the previous 9.32%, with a “Systemic Risk Buffer” (SyRB) and “Countercyclical Capital Buffer” (CCyB) accounting for the increase.
In UniCredit’s case the main difference from requirements supervisors set at the end of 2023 for the current year is the SyRB, which UniCredit said stood at 0.2% compared with 0.03% last year.
The CCyB edged up to 0.44% from 0.37%.
UniCredit’s core capital stood at 16.13% of assets at the end of September.
The CCyB and SyRB buffers are calculated on a quarterly basis and can vary accordingly.
The ECB sets specific requirements for banks every year after a risk assessment specific to each lender, known as SREP.
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gavin Jones and Jane Merriman)
