Mustier pins UniCredit’s hopes on buybacks and pay-outs

As Italy’s biggest bank unveils a new plan and new targets, CEO Jean Pierre Mustier says negative rates and Basel III reforms mean “8% is the new 10%” for European banks’ returns on equity

Jean Pierre Mustier is pinning his hopes on share buy-backs and dividend buy-outs in UniCredit’s latest three-year plan, as he tries to convince investors to look beyond its falling return on equity.

The chief executive’s new plan, unveiled at the bank’s capital markets day in London on December 3, comes as lower-for-longer negative European Central Bank rates – and the looming effect of new Basel III reforms in Europe – are forcing more eurozone banks to abandon hopes of earning a double-digit return on equity, something previously regarded as an industry minimum.

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Jean Pierre Mustier, UniCredit

UniCredit, which can style itself a pan-European institution thanks to top-tier positions in Italy and Germany, now targets an underlying return on tangible equity of 8% by 2023.

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