UniCredit says exit from Russia cannot and should not be done overnight – document

MILAN (Reuters) – An exit of UniCredit from the Russian market cannot and should not be done overnight, Italy’s No.2 bank said in an answer to a shareholder question ahead of the shareholders’ meeting of April 8.

UniCredit, which stands among European lenders most exposed to Russia, is currently completing an urgent internal assessment of the impact, the bank repeated.

Chief Executive Andrea Orcel said last month that the lender was studying ways to exit the country following the invasion of Ukraine but that leaving was an extremely complex decision which could take time.

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia)