Italy's UniCredit bank posts massive $14.5 billion loss

MILAN (AP) — Italian bank UniCredit announced a heavy fourth-quarter loss Thursday of 13.6 billion euros ($14.5 billion) as its new CEO moved to fortify the firm by cleaning up its portfolio of soured loans.

Italy's largest bank by assets, UniCredit said that it incurred 13.2 billion euros in one-off expenses, which included a previously announced 8.1-billion-euro write-off on bad loans plus other charges such as contributions to an Italian fund to save weaker banks.