Best bank 2025: UniCredit

UniCredit considers itself the most shareholder-friendly bank in Europe: with some justification, as shareholder distributions rose to €9 billion in 2024.   

Italy’s best bank in 2025 boasts a total shareholder return over the four years to end-2024 of more than 500%, including share-price appreciation, dividends and buybacks.

After 16 consecutive quarters of growth, 2024 was UniCredit’s best-ever year for profitability. Return on equity rose to 17.7% despite carrying €6.5