team spirit - Bankier.pl

“As a member of UniCredit Group we offer our customers a network in 19 countries and the products and
services of a large international bank. We want to build on the diversity of our local banking subsidiaries
while also combining expertise, bundling production and using the location advantages of our network –
and thus grow together to become the truly European bank.”
UniCredit Group aims to go beyond the size and expansion of
its regional markets: we intend to become a European company
with strong regional roots, combining supraregional
business, international financial markets and local customer
relationships. We attach great importance to the growing
team spirit based on our shared values, on a multicultural
management team, exchange and openness, and on the
strong commitment of employees at our local banks – in brief,
unity in diversity. Bank Austria Creditanstalt fully shares this
approach and this claim, and it will therefore smoothly integrate
into the new Group. Above all, we can offer customers
in our markets – in Austria and CEE – a significantly wider
choice.
A compelling industrial logic
With the business combination to form UniCredit Group we
are at the forefront of profound changes in the European
banking sector, changes whose significance are not yet fully
recognised everywhere. Financial service providers are among
the least concentrated industries in the European internal
market; at the other end of the scale, key industries are highly
concentrated and operate on the principle of division of
labour across regions. For a number of reasons, the European
financial market is still highly fragmented, yet it should provide
the business sector with an efficient and open infrastructure.
It is clear that banks are subject to the same economic
rationality as the industrial sector. Banks can use economies of
scale and scope, too, and they can also use supraregional
platforms for production. This applies equally to activities in
international financial markets and to local retail banking.
Banking business is characterised by common features wherever
it is conducted, though there are differences in consumers’
habits and in the local business structure. Therefore
banks increasingly use industrial models to structure their
operations. Banks compete with other industries for the same
Erich Hampel, Chairman of the Managing Board of Bank Austria Creditanstalt and
member of UniCredit's Management Committee with responsibility for the CEE Division
capital and have to generate excess returns corresponding to
their risk profiles. Sustainable value creation requires selective
allocation of capital, as well as productivity improvements and
growth.
The new banking group focuses on both, growth and productivity.
And it will achieve sustainable value enhancement both
in mature markets and in the young growth markets in Central
and Eastern Europe.
� UniCredit plays a leading role in Germany, Italy and Austria.
It is deeply rooted in one of Europe’s most prosperous
and integrated regions. This area comprises northern Italy,
UniCredit’s home market, and Bavaria, the home of HypoVereinsbank,
as well as Austria, the home country of Bank Austria
Creditanstalt. Many of Europe’s major industries are located in
this highly integrated region, with a sound mix of large companies
and small businesses, conurbations and peripheral service
providers. Gross domestic product in this region is 17 %
higher than the average for the old EU-15 countries. The
mature core markets will continue to play a strategic role in
the future. The three home countries of UniCredit Group are
also important partners of the CEE countries in the areas of
foreign trade and direct investment. The total volume of these
three countries’ foreign trade with CEE exceeds € 300 bn,
which corresponds to 14 % of their total foreign trade and
30 % of the foreign trade volume of the CEE countries.
� The new Group operates in 16 countries in Central and
Eastern Europe (and maintains operations in a total of 19
countries). Even before the business combination, BA-CA and
HVB as well as UniCredit were major players in the dynamically
growing economies of the New Europe. Together they now
hold the undisputed market leadership position in this region
– total assets of their operations in CEE are more than twice
those of the nearest competitor and the number of their
branches is also more than twice as large. The new Group is
With UniCredit to the First Truly European Bank
15