Chief executive of UniCredit, Italy's second-biggest bank. In September 2024 Orcel began building a stake in Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest listed lender. In May 2026 he made a lowball bid for the rest of the bank, at a price 8% below the previous close, betting Commerzbank's share price would slide and he could buy more cheaply later. On April 20th 2026 UniCredit published a 34-page plan calling Commerzbank "vulnerable", "underperforming", "risky" and "overvalued", drawing a rebuke from BaFin, Germany's financial watchdog, which ordered the Italians to cease "sensationalist and irrelevant" advertisements.
A gossip is one who talks to you about others, a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.