Unicredit CEO Orcel to Meet EU Competition and Financial Chiefs Over Mergers
UniCredit's Strategic Moves and EU Regulatory Response
BRUSSELS, May 11 (Reuters) - Italian bank UniCredit's Chief Executive Andrea Orcel will meet with European Commission competition chief Teresa Ribera and Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luisa Albuquerque on Monday, the EU executive's agenda showed.
EU Pushback on Bank Consolidation Barriers
The meetings come as the EU pushes back against member states hampering bank consolidation within the bloc.
UniCredit's Bid for Commerzbank
UniCredit last week launched a bid to raise its stake in German lender Commerzbank despite firm German opposition.
German Government's Stance on Banking Takeovers
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this month that Berlin was opposed to hostile and aggressive takeovers in the banking sector, referring to the proposed UniCredit-Commerzbank tie-up.
EU Commission's Pressure on Italy's Golden Power Law
The Commission is also pressing Italy to adopt further changes to its "golden power" legislation, after a first revision failed to ease Brussels' concerns that the way Rome vets banking merger deals breaches EU rules. The legislation is the country's legal framework for screening and intervening in transactions involving companies considered strategic to national interests.
Clash Over UniCredit's Abandoned Banco BPM Bid
The clash with Italy erupted after UniCredit blamed government intervention for its decision last year to abandon a takeover bid for smaller rival Banco BPM.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Giuseppe Fonte, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Hugh Lawson)
