ROME – The board of Italy’s largest bank, UniCredit, has named Jean-Pierre Mustier as CEO as it tries to improve its profitability and help the shares recover from a slump this year.
Mustier, who held several positions at French bank Societe Generale before first joining UniCredit in 2011, replaces Federico Ghizzoni.
UniCredit announced Ghizzoni’s resignation last month amid investor discontent over the bank’s weak capital position and low profitability.
Ghizzoni’s nearly six-year tenure spanned the sovereign debt crisis and Italian recession, and has been marked recently by cost-cutting and moves to shrink its load of impaired loans.
Mustier, 55, worked at UniCredit from 2011 to 2014 as deputy general manager and head of the investment banking division. Most recently, he was a partner at Tikehau Capital.
