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UniCredit under pressure from ECB on presence in Russia – newspaper

The tension in their relationship arose due to the plans of the Italian bank to pay more funds to its shareholders and the unwillingness to curtail activities in the Russian Federation, the publication reports, citing sources

LONDON, November 7. /TASS/. The strain in relations between the European Central Bank (ECB) and UniCredit has occurred because of Italian bank’s plans to pay more to its shareholders and continued operations in Russia, Financial Times said, citing sources.

UniCredit and Raiffeisen Bank International are the two European banking groups continuing large-scale operations in Russia. According to a Financial Times’ source, UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel experienced a strong pressure from ECB regarding operations of the bank in Russia.

UniCredit held talks on the sale of its Russian business with potential buyers in China, India and Turkey, Financial Times said. ECB asked the bank to furnish regular updates on the progress in this process.

Disagreements between ECB and UniCredit occured after Orcel became the chief executive of the bank in April 2021 and implemented the aggressive strategy of reviewing bank’s operations and increasing dividends, Financial Times reported.