UniCredit has announced that it is working with BNP Paribas and FNZ as part of the next phase of its securities services overhaul.

The move comes after the bank announced in January that it would bring its back-office activities for securities services in house, standardising its operations and suppliers across countries and creating more than 200 new jobs across Germany and Italy.

BNP Paribas will provide custody services for the bank in Italy and Germany, with additional support for Luxembourg, while FNZ will support the development of its cloud-based post-trade securities platform.

UniCredit said that the team managing the new platform will be fully internal to UniCredit, creating more than 140 new roles in Germany, where the service was previously mostly outsourced, and a further 60 roles in Italy.

Another 25 roles have been created within the digital team across Italy, Germany and Poland to support the process, with further roles to come, while a cross-functional project team is already working on the transition.

"We are fully committed to harmonising and simplifying our set-up across UniCredit to provide a more secure, flexible and cost-efficient foundation for the delivery of custody services, enabling our clients to be more agile and impactful in their execution," said Gianfranco Bisagni, UniCredit's group chief operating officer. "Working with FNZ and BNP Paribas, we are confident we have the best possible foundation in place."

In July, UniCredit abandoned its €15 billion takeover bid for smaller rival Banco BPM, citing government interference and regulatory uncertainty that made the deal untenable.

Italy's second-largest bank announced that it was withdrawing the all-share offer after months of standoff with Rome over conditions imposed under the country's "golden power" rules, which allow the government to block or impose requirements on deals involving strategic assets.

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