UniCredit, the pan-European industrial financial institution, has accomplished its acquisition of Belgium-based digital financial institution Aion Financial institution and Vodeno, the cloud-native core banking system.
Having initially introduced the transfer in July 2024, UniCredit has now closed the transaction, by which it acquires the whole share capital of Aion Financial institution and Vodeno for €376million. The transfer aligns with the acceleration section of the UniCredit ‘Unlocked’ technique, which allows the financial institution to speed up its development, coming into new markets, companies and shopper segments.
The transaction marks an acceleration of the financial institution’s exercise within the digital banking area, standing as one of many first strikes by a financial institution to amass full possession of a brand new expertise (with none dependencies from third-party suppliers), making certain robust differentiation from pure expertise suppliers, neobanks and incumbents present process digital transformation.
Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit, stated: “Our dedication to continuously delivering greatest in school returns and distributions sustainable over time is completely balanced with our dedication to investing in our future.
“Inside this context Aion Financial institution and Vodeno is an funding each in enhancing our personal technological functionality – via the acquisition of a confirmed group that has developed one of the trendy and versatile core banking techniques round – and in our enterprise, enabling us to develop considerably via coming into new markets, companies and shopper segments.”
By way of the mixed capabilities of Aion Financial institution and Vodeno, UniCredit now has entry to a scalable and versatile cloud-based platform, primarily based on API connectivity and with sensible contract expertise inbuilt – all of which might be built-in with the processes and procedures of a fully-fledged financial institution.
Eyeing up European enlargement
Following this acquisition, UniCredit can even profit from Vodeno’s expertise and abilities. It says these will allow it to develop a spread of recent merchandise and combine exterior options, whereas enhancing time-to-market in creating and testing new options to additional penetrate focused shoppers’ segments and to enter in new international locations.
Past leveraging Aion Financial institution’s ECB banking licence and established mobile-first providing for retail and SME shoppers, UniCredit will look to develop Aion Financial institution and Vodeno’s present Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) providing throughout key European markets, together with Germany and Poland. This might see the financial institution embed its companies – starting from account entry and deposits to lending, funds and loyalty applications – immediately into non-banking digital platforms, facilitating seamless buyer experiences.
UniCredit additionally plans to progressively make investments as much as €200million, with an purpose of including 2.5 million shoppers, reaching a ROAC above 25 per cent and a price earnings ratio of 34 per cent inside three years.
