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President Vladimir Putin has authorised Italy's UniCredit to carry out a reorganisation of its Russian subsidiary bank, UniCredit Bank AO, and of transactions in its shares, according to an order published on 5 October.

In early May, after several years of scaling back its presence in Russia, UniCredit announced plans to split its Russian business and sell part of it to an investor from the United Arab Emirates. The deal reportedly involves spinning off part of the Russian bank's activities into a new legal entity and then selling the bank, with its remaining assets, to the buyer. After the transaction UniCredit would own 100 % of the "new bank", and the buyer 100 % of the "remaining bank".

The deal was expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to a binding agreement, the separation of the assets in Russia and approval from the relevant regulators.

The presidential order permits the reorganisation of UniCredit Bank AO through the spin-off of a company, with its shares going to the bank's sole shareholder, as well as transactions to acquire 100 % of the bank's shares. The document states that no other permits, decisions, approvals or authorisations required under the law are needed for the transactions.

The order does not name the prospective buyer of UniCredit's Russian business.

In its May statement, the Italian group described the buyer as a well-established private investor in the UAE with long-standing ties to local business circles, on whom UniCredit had carried out compliance checks, Interfax reported. The agreement with the investor "accelerates the refocusing of UniCredit's operations in Russia on international payments, mainly in euros and dollars, for western and Russian corporate clients not subject to sanctions", the release said.

The group also assured clients that those using UniCredit's payment solutions in Russia and abroad would retain access to the current range of operations throughout the process.

UniCredit estimates that the total negative financial impact of the deal could be 3 billion to 3.3 billion euros.

In terms of technical procedures, the reorganisation could take from four to eight or nine months, said Pavel Annenkov, head of the M&A practice at the law firm Delcredere, quoted by RBC.

In May last year, Reuters reported, citing sources, that three UAE companies had offered the Italian Treasury to buy UniCredit's Russian subsidiaries at a steep discount. Under the plan, Dubai-based Asas Capital and Mada Capital would create a special-purpose company and join forces with Inweasta, an investment firm already operating in Russia. The Inweasta group was founded in 2022 by Andrei Yelinson, a former head of A1. It runs projects in more than 12 countries and manages assets of more than $1 billion. In 2024 it bought the Russian insurance business of the Czech group PPF, PPF Life Insurance LLC, after winning approval from the central bank and the government commission that vets foreign investment.

UniCredit has been present in the Russian market since 2005. Until 2022 it worked actively with corporate clients, international business, foreign trade settlements and wealthy individuals. After the start of the military conflict in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, UniCredit said it could leave Russia but was in no hurry to sell its assets. In spring 2024 it emerged that the European Central Bank had demanded that EU banks shrink the business of their Russian subsidiaries, after which UniCredit stepped up the process.

UniCredit nonetheless remains one of Russia's systemically important credit institutions. According to banki.ru, as of 1 September 2026 it ranked 24th in Russia by assets (697.4 billion rubles, or $8.1 billion) and 11th by capital (376.9 billion rubles, or $4.4 billion).

According to the UniCredit group's IFRS results, net profit from its Russian business in the first half of 2026 was 346 million euros, down 42.2 % year on year. The Russian bank's loan portfolio over the same period fell 16.8 % to 521 million euros, and its deposits fell 15.6 %, but still stand at a sizeable 2.32 billion euros. At 30 June the Russian subsidiary employed 1,350 people.