UniCredit to cut staff numbers in central finance division to reduce costs

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian bank UniCredit is reorganising its finance division and cutting staff numbers, an internal memo showed on Monday, after CEO Andrea Orcel announced headcount reductions at the group's central offices.

In an interview with an Italian daily on Sunday, Orcel said the number of staff in the bank's central offices had been inflated by an organisation that fostered "excessive controls".

Some employees will be offered early retirement packages, while others would be retrained and moved to "more productive" roles, he told Il Messaggero newspaper.

An internal memo signed by Finance Chief Stefano Porro, of which Reuters saw a copy, on Monday outlined the new structure, which merged some functions and assigned some executives new roles in addition to their current positions.

As an example, Stefano Chiarlone, head of finance for Italy, will also be responsible for balance sheet management, the document showed.

Bonifacio Di Francescantonio, currently manager in charge for the group, will also be responsible for activities relating to financial statements and regulatory disclosure.

Barbara Naef, who was head of cost management for investment banking at Orcel's former employer UBS, is being put in charge of cost management and control, the document said.

Two people close to the matter said the size of the proposed personnel reduction could see at least around one third of senior roles within the division being cut.

The memo said the new finance team would be "agile and efficient".

"For any reorganisation of this scale there will be both activities and personnel changes. These will require understanding," it added

UniCredit declined to comment.

Orcel, who took over at UniCredit in 2021 after the bank restructured under previous CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, has kept up a strict control of costs, striving to boost profits and shareholder rewards.

(Reporting by Valentina Za and Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Jan Harvey)