UniCredit's Orcel Says It's Time for Banks to Be Conservative

Few bankers can match Andrea Orcel’s depth of insight into the fast-changing financial landscape. The chief executive officer of Italy’s UniCredit SpA runs banks in 13 countries across central and eastern Europe. And as the former head of investment banking at Switzerland’s UBS Group AG, he has an insider’s appreciation for why the swift collapse of its rival Credit Suisse AG was such a shock. Orcel sees little cause for concern over the merger of the banks into one behemoth. What does preoccupy him is the profound change in macroeconomic conditions, and he says industry leaders must be vigilant for trouble. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Suddenly, banks are failing on both sides of the Atlantic. Is there a banking crisis?
There is, and there isn’t. We’ve had a shock in the US. We’ve had another shock in Switzerland. But these shocks are relatively localized. If you look at the capital strengths of banks—I’m talking about European banks—if you look at liquidity, deposits and all of that together, it’s very difficult to see where the weak points are.