UniCredit has bought a nine per cent stake in German rival Commerzbank.

The Italian lender said that that 4.49 per cent of the stake has been acquired in an accelerated book building offering on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is planning to reduce its stake in the German bank.

The rest of the stake has been acquired through market activity.

The Milan-headquartered bank said that to maintain flexibility it plans to submit regulatory filings for authorisation to potentially exceed 9.9 per cent of ownership "if and when necessary."

It went on to say that the bank remains focused on the continued rollout of its 2022-2024 strategy 'UniCredit Unlocked' and the delivery of "sustainable profitable growth".

UniCredit's strategy aims to refocus on regions to "put clients at back at the centre" whilst driving financial performance through cost efficiency, funding digital and data transformation, and facilitating net revenue growth of circa two per cent per annum.

In July, UniCredit announced a significant move into the digital banking space with the acquisition of Belgian digital bank Aion Bank and cloud banking technology provider Vodeno.

The deal, valued at approximately €370 million, marks one of the first instances of a major bank acquiring full ownership of a new technology platform without relying on third-party core banking providers.

The acquisition brought together Aion Bank's European Central Bank licence and Vodeno's innovative cloud-based platform, enabling UniCredit to offer comprehensive Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions across Europe.

The Vodeno Cloud Platform, described as a state-of-the-art, cloud-native core banking system, utilises smart contracts technology and API integration.

The acquisition brings 200 engineers, developers, and data scientists into the UniCredit fold, significantly enhancing the bank's technological capabilities.

This move is expected to provide UniCredit with a competitive edge in digital banking, particularly in serving high-value segments such as affluent clients and SMEs.

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