Milan, Vienna, Zeist, 27 November 2025 - UniCredit Bank Austria and PGGM enter a €1.945 billion risk sharing transaction referencing a corporate and SME loans portfolio and allowing the bank to boost lending.
The transaction referred to as "Project ARTS Belvedere 2025" represents the return of UniCredit Bank Austria as issuer in the significant risk transfer (SRT) market, further reinforcing UniCredit's position as one of Europe's most active and innovative SRT players.
The transaction is part of UniCredit ARTS program, within UniCredit's strategy to increasingly use SRT as an effective tool to enhance capital efficiency and to widen lending capabilities for the real economy, with the ambition to expand it further to new asset classes and different legal entities in the Group perimeter.
Project ARTS Belvedere 2025 builds on the close cooperation between UniCredit Group and PGGM, representing the third joint project, following the completion of ARTS Silver-2 executed in Bulgaria in 2025 and ARTS Morava in the Czech Republic in 2024.
The €1.945 billion reference portfolio of Project ARTS Belvedere 2025 consists of corporate and SME exposures granted to clients of UniCredit Bank Austria. The capital structure includes retained first loss and senior tranches, and a second loss tranche guaranteed by PGGM on behalf of its client PFZW, the Dutch pension fund for the healthcare sector.
UniCredit Bank GmbH acted as sole arranger and placement agent for the Bank.
Stefano Chiarlone, Head of Balance Sheet Management at UniCredit, stated: "Project ARTS Belvedere 2025 further confirms the effectiveness of UniCredit's strategy on capital efficiency, delivering significant capital relief at both Bank and Group level. With this transaction, we have successfully expanded our SRT framework to Austria and strengthened its development in the CEE region. It marks our 6th SRT transaction in CEE, confirming the broad geographical coverage of our SRT activity on top of Italy and Germany. I would like to thank PGGM for being a reliable partner in this important project".
Hélène Buffin, CFO at UniCredit Bank Austria said: "Project ARTS Belvedere 2025, and our renewed role as an issuer in the SRT market, represents an important milestone in our ongoing efforts to optimize capital and risk management efficiency. By further strengthening our capital position, this transaction allows us to accelerate the lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporates. We greatly value our excellent collaboration with PGGM, which lays the foundation for a long-term partnership".
Luca Paonessa, Lead Portfolio Manager, Credit Risk Sharing at PGGM added: "The first transaction with UniCredit was executed exactly one year ago. Today we look back on a very productive year, during which UniCredit Group has become one of the core relationships for our mandate. In addition to the high professional standards that the group implements across its subsidiaries, UniCredit is a leader in integrating sustainability in all areas of lending, making it a perfect fit for our client PFZW. We are very pleased to welcome Bank Austria among our partner banks, and we look forward to expanding our presence in the CEE region."
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