Unlock Your Potential

Thursday 17 March 2022

UniCredit is proud to launch its 2021 Annual and Integrated Reports that share the title “Unlock Your Potential”, with a strong focus on showcasing stories from across the Group’s geographies, capturing stories from our clients, our people and our communities. Unique and authentic testaments of our Bank’s commitment to empower them to progress, supporting them through the challenges they face.

2:00 min

In line with our purpose of Empowering Communities to Progress, we continue to put our clients and communities at the heart of all that we do with a constant commitment to always serve their needs and be the bank for Europe's future.

To concretely showcase how Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) values are embedded in our business and culture, both our Annual and Integrated Reports this year include a series of stories about our clients, our people and our communities across the Group’s different countries, working together to empower our communities and unlock their potential. These highlight our strong ESG ambitions and continued focus on supporting the transition to a more sustainable, better society for all. This is because we are more than just a financial institution; we are UniCredit: a bank for Europe’s future.

Our stories not only reflect UniCredit’s active role in the functioning of today’s society, but also our work with and financing of organisations that are striving to protect our planet for future generations. We do this by supporting entrepreneurs and microbusinesses, helping our clients adapt their operations to the changing world around us and providing our clients, people and communities with vital support in times of need.

The Annual Report provides an overview of the long-term vision for UniCredit, using all its existing raw ingredients as a truly local bank with a pan-European reach, to act as an engine for financial progress in all our markets, allowing our communities to unlock their potential and succeed. While the current strategic plan UniCredit Unlocked was formally announced in December, the actions to unlock UniCredit and build the bank for Europe’s future began months before and were firmly executed throughout 2021 to change the way we operate, refocus on people empowerment and make best use of digital and data all within a clear risk framework that includes ESG.

Furthermore, our Integrated Report details how ESG considerations are fundamental to every decision we make and every action we execute. They are a central part of how we do business. We know that fulfilling our purpose of Empowering Communities to Progress would not be possible without the highest standards of ESG across our bank.

Sustainability is a critical part of UniCredit’s new 2022-2024 Strategic Plan, UniCredit Unlocked. This is both in reference to our clients and communities and also our own bank. We know that leading by example is the right thing to do: ESG is embedded throughout our business. It is a collective mindset that we all take responsibility for. UniCredit's ESG strategy reflects our ambition to position ourselves as a bank of reference on ESG issues.

Banks have an important social function which goes far beyond lending. Our role is to assist our clients and communities in making meaningful progress towards a more sustainable, inclusive and fair society in the long term. We will continue to play our part in doing so: cultivating stakeholders’ trust, supporting impactful social initiatives and consistently measuring our results to ensure we are held accountable. This will ensure ESG is at the heart of all our activity as we build a bank for the long-term; a bank for Europe’s future.

We are unlocking the potential of our stakeholders across our five capitals (financial, human, social and relationship, intellectual and natural capitals), committing to creating a positive environment based on respect, acting as engines of individual and collective growth, empowering communities to progress and help people, communities, and countries to unlock their potential. Protecting natural capital by delivering sustainable financing solutions to clients and reducing the environmental impacts of our direct operations is also fostered by our commitment to a Net-Zero future. The 2021 Integrated shows our renewed ESG Strategy including our goals and highlights our 2021 achievements towards our goals.

We are proud of our team’s dedication to supporting and financing initiatives that will have a positive and enduring impact, and as ever, we look to the future with the determination to do more; to do better for our clients and communities.