Press release 26 January 2015, Budapest
STEADILY IN THE PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE
UniCredit: with 25 years of dedicated work among the best ones 25 years ago, on 23 January 1990 Creditanstalt Rt. was launched, which provides services to its customers under the name of UniCredit Bank Hungary today. As a result of fusions, developments and dedicated work that have been performed in the last two and a half decades, UniCredit has grown from a rookie team into one of the first-class players of the Hungarian bank sector. The range of its offered products and services has been shaped and expanded based on real customer demands, while it has become one of the best in the market according to customer satisfaction index as well as profitability.
Since the moment that the onetime largest bank in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy founded a commercial bank under the name Creditanstalt Rt. in Hungary in 1990, its history has been shaped by a series of fusions. The mergers with Bank Austria in 1998 and with HypoVereinsbank in 2001 established HVB Group, which has dynamically increased its total assets and number of customers in the following years. As a result of another fusion of the HypoVereinsbank AG–Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG Group and the Italian UniCredito Italiano S.p.A in 2005 a leading banking group in Europe and the market leader in the Central and Eastern European region was created. Two years later, UniCredit Group unified its own brand structure: since 2007, the Hungarian subsidiary has been operating under the UniCredit Bank name as well.
“Our bank introduced into the Hungarian market in the year of the political regime change, dedicated itself to serve the Hungarian clients by implementing modern banking operations, advanced financial know-how and developed financial culture, which were all new and state-of-the-art in Hungary at the time. The numerous market changes that have taken place in the past 25 years have reinforced our commitment and inspired us to increase our capital strength insuring security, which we have unwaveringly been dedicating to the service of our Hungarian clients and the development of Hungary’s economy. We are thankful to our clients for our success, whose trust has enabled us to become among the country’s leading banks in the third place in terms of total assets,” summed it up Dr. Mihály Patai, Chairman and CEO of UniCredit Bank.
As one of the leading players of the Hungarian bank sector, UniCredit Bank is currently serving over 400 thousand customers through the 85 branch offices in its nationwide network, Call Center and its online banking system, providing a wide range of products and services from loans for private and corporate customers and factoring services to the big development projects realised with supports from the European Union, from bank accounts and deposits through asset management to investment banking services. This offer is completed by the services of the Hungarian leasing firm of UniCredit Group, UniCredit Leasing Hungary Ltd., and of Pioneer Fund Management Ltd., and is supported with financial resources by UniCredit Jelzálogbank Ltd. The bank has been acknowledged with a number of Hungarian and international awards in recent years, while at the same time also being recognized by customer satisfaction well above the market average.
“The capital position of our local bank remained strong and stable even through the most difficult years of the Hungarian banking sector, in fact, UniCredit is one of the very few banks in Hungary that have continuously operated profitably, and we expect UniCredit Bank Hungary to close the fiscal year 2014 with a profit. This is also one of the reasons why UniCredit is committed to stay long term in Hungary, while the other one is that – following 2014 – we expect economic growth in Hungary in the following years. Of course we are closely monitoring the local business environment in order to adapt our business model in time and to secure positive results”, affirmed Gianni Papa, Head of UniCredit CEE Division the Group’s plans related to its Hungarian bank celebrating its 25th anniversary.
UniCredit
UniCredit is a leading European commercial bank with strong roots in 17 countries.
Our overall global network embraces approximately 50 markets with around 8,600 branches and more than 148,000 employees (as of 30th September 2014).
In the CEE Region, UniCredit runs the largest and most diversified international banking network in 14 countries, with more than 3,420* branches and over 68,000* employees.
The Group operates in Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine (as of 30th September 2014).
Further information:
Smid Beáta managing director phone: 301-5416
UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt.