Prime Highlights
- UniCredit confirmed Riccardo Orcel was appointed as an independent adviser by its board to manage the Russian business sale process.
- Finance professor Stefano Gatti noted that appointing close relatives of senior bank figures triggers strict Bank of Italy related-party transaction rules.
Key Facts
- UniCredit is Italy’s second-largest bank, which maintained a significant presence in Russia even after the invasion of Ukraine before moving to exit.
- Riccardo Orcel formerly served as deputy CEO of VTB and vice chairman of VTB Capital before leaving Russia in 2022.
Background
Andrea Orcel’s younger brother, Riccardo Orcel, helped broker UniCredit’s agreement to sell its Russian banking business, offering new insight into how Italy’s second-largest bank secured its exit from the country.
UniCredit confirmed that Riccardo Orcel presented a proposal regarding its Russian business and was appointed as an independent adviser by the bank’s board to oversee the process. The result of that effort was the agreement that was made public last month.
Riccardo Orcel is a former senior banker at VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest state-backed bank, where he served as deputy chief executive and vice chairman of its investment banking arm, VTB Capital. He left Russia in 2022 and has since worked with gold producer Polymetal International and agricultural trader Quanton Commodities. VTB is now under Western sanctions.
UniCredit had long maintained one of the largest Western banking presences in Russia, continuing operations even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drew regulatory pressure to withdraw. In the third week of May, the bank reached a non-binding agreement to sell parts of its Russian operations to a private investor based in the United Arab Emirates, retaining only its payments business in Russia.
Dubai has become a key hub for Russia-linked business activity since sanctions closed off traditional financial centres.
Finance professor Stefano Gatti of Milan’s Bocconi University noted that the appointment of close relatives of senior figures at Italian banks is subject to strict Bank of Italy rules on related-party transactions, with oversight from regulators, board directors, and statutory auditors.
Any UniCredit deal would require a presidential decree and Russian central bank approval.
