UniCredit's five-year strategy: 300 new branches for retail growth

Italy's UniCredit plan to open another 300 branches in Romania in the next five years, from 234 at present, according to the strategic objectives for the CEE region that Federico Ghizzoni, the CEO of the group appointed this autumn, announced in London yesterday.

"We will invest to open branches, we are considering around 900 for the entire region in the next five years as we believe there is very much room for growth in retail. The penetration rate of offices is still very low, and the number of bankable clients will rise and we need to be as close to them as possible".
Out of the 900 total, 300 branches will be added to the Romanian network, just like in Turkey, while 200 will be added in Hungary.
Ghizzoni said the Romanian bank has the role of a pilot for several projects that are conceived here before being implemented on the markets in the region. On the other hand, he believes the general situation of Romania needs to be "closely monitored".