UniCredit named Best Bank for Transaction Banking in Europe

Recognition underscores bank's concerted focus on payments and its ongoing digital transformation

UniCredit has been named Best Bank for Transaction Banking in Europe at The Banker's 2024 Transaction Banking Awards, the first time it has been recognised as such.

Amongst the leading industry standards for banking excellence, The Banker's annual Transaction Banking Awards give recognition to the importance of transaction banking and its key players globally.

Two themes came to the fore this year throughout the judging process: firstly, how banks are approaching cross-border payments, and secondly, the ongoing process of digitising banking and providing faster and more transparent transaction banking services.

Having recently carved out a new business vertical focused solely on payments solutions, UniCredit's new structure allows it to focus on initiatives that take advantage of its pan-European scale to bring product innovation and service excellence to all its clients across its networks.

Meanwhile, the bank continues to upgrade its channels, including its proprietary Trade Finance Gate platform, which offers real-time tracking, document management and fully-digital transaction submission - underpinning them with technologyand data as it seeks to simplify the client experience and increase the number of touchpoints it offers.

In the working capital space, the bank's Smart Factor platform, developed to enable clients to manage their advance payment on receivables, has been considerably strengthened - offering a single, user-friendly digital environment for all services, information, and devices.

Across the award period, UniCredit's UC PayFX international payments service added payment options in non-negotiable currencies, such as the Korean won, Taiwan dollar, Philippine peso, Egyptian pound and Brazilian real - resulting in a significantly expanded client base for cross-border payments.

The service was also rolled out to new geographies in Germany, Italy and Romania, serving a growing portion of the small-to-mid-cap market - with more than 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises onboarded in Italy and Germany by the end of 2023.

Moreover, earlier this year, UniCredit became the first and only bank across its core markets to offer Swift GPI on international payments across each of its client segments - from retail clients up to SMEs and multinational corporates - following its roll-out of the free service in Austria, Italy and Germany.

Swift GPI enables banks to offer a faster, transparent, and traceable cross-border payments service, with end-to-end visibility on transactions and accurate and real-time payment information.

At Group level, the bank also entered a multi-year strategic alliance with Mastercard, putting in place an unprecedented single card multi-market strategy in Europe, with the shared ambition of increasing the speed of innovation in the payments space.

Commenting on the win, Richard Burton, UniCredit's Head of Client Solutions, said: "Transaction banking and payments are in our DNA and represent the backbone of many of our client relationships, from individuals to the largest of corporates. This achievement is a reflection of how we are building our business around those clients, as well as integrated channels and best-in-class products. In payments, we continue to pursue our ambition of becoming every European client's first choice."

Milan, 04 September 2024

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