On 19 June 2025, the European Commission conditionally approved UniCredit’s acquisition of Banco BPM SpA, subject to remedies, in Phase I.

UniCredit is Italy’s second largest banking group by assets, providing retail, commercial, and private banking as well as insurance and asset management services, with principal operations in Italy, Germany, and Central and Eastern Europe. Banco BPM is Italy’s third largest banking group by assets, offering retail, commercial, and investment banking as well as insurance and asset management services.

The Commission’s investigation found that, at the local level, the significant horizontal overlap between the parties’ branch networks would raise competition concerns in the markets for deposits and loans for retail consumers and SMEs across 181 local areas in Italy. To address those concerns, UniCredit committed to divesting 209 physical branches located in the identified overlap areas. The Commission concluded that these commitments fully addressed the competition concerns by removing the horizontal overlap and preserving competition in those markets.

Oxera assisted both Parties on this transaction, in particular by providing economic analysis for the competitive assessment in local markets and in identifying a suitable remedy package.

The Oxera team on this transaction was led by Barbara Veronese and Giulio Federico, supported by Sebastian Wernicke, Ilaria Fanton, Simone Negro, Filippo Maccio, Beatrice Romagnolo and Vittorio Ghisellini.