UniCredit is preparing for the upturn. Well-positioned in eastern Europe, a rights issue under its belt and with a fresh approach to customer relationships, the bank is looking to get back on track with its diversified business model.
Chief executive Alessandro Profumo, in an interview conducted at January's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, says: "In 2010 we see an improvement [in performance] over 2009 which has, in fact, already been good in the sense that the results are much better than we were expecting in March of last year.