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For Jean Pierre Mustier, a school of the cole polytechnique and the cole des Mines, born in 1961, the challenge of securing Unicredit and then relaunching it was part of the mandate received from the bank’s board of directors that had called it to service in July 2016. He, a long career at Socit Gnrale, had already been at the bank in Piazza Gae Aulenti in 2011 as director of investment banking.
Four years ago, and it seems like a century. These are the years of the disaster of the Popolare di Vicenza, the bank overwhelmed by accounts and scandals, for which Unicredit had promised a few months earlier to guarantee a capital increase. A mission that had been too onerous even for the second Italian bank. Therefore, at the last minute, the Atlante operation, a fund that guarantees the rescue of that institution. These are the years in which the capital requirements of banks, required by the Basel principles and by ECB Supervision, become the guiding criteria for the soundness of credit institutions. It is to this that Mustier dedicates a large part of his initial activity, in an obligatory short time. In February 2017, the maximum capital increase of 13 billion was closed, the largest ever achieved in Italy by a bank. Bad loans are sold, that is, credit at risk (Npl) for a volume of 17 billion. The sum of transactions greater than Unicredit’s market capitalization. Weeks around the world to convince investors. The French banker succeeds. Then the divestments, of Pioneer sold to Amundi in the gradual exit of Fineco and Mediobanca. Transactions deemed necessary to strengthen the bank. Harmony with the board was broad at the time. And also during the implementation of the Transform plan, aimed at making the bank increasingly digital and, as it often repeats, alongside the companies. As a Frenchman, he explains that the Italian manufacturing system is more reactive and quick to respond to the crisis.
Phase two was now beginning for Unicredit, made possible by the work done by Mustier and his team. A bank that has long been a public company, where no shareholder can have double-digit packages. Strength, but also fragility when you have to go through complex moments with waves of ten meters high. Then, yesterday, the decision to leave, but allowing the right moments for an orderly transition. His plan: to build a winning pan-European group, in recent months there had been a rift between him and the council. Impassable. The market also made other decisions. Now the dossier l: Will Unicredit join Mps?
