UniCredit sees another year of global crisis-report

MILAN, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The current financial crisis could continue for another year or so, the deputy head of UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), one of Europe's top five banks, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

"I would say ... we have reached about half way more or less, so there's another year of uncertainty ahead," Sergio Ermotti, deputy chief executive and head of investment banking at UniCredit, told Milano Finanza newspaper.

Ermotti said UniCredit was focused on the east, and would not be interested in any opportunities for acquisitions in the west which have been created as a result of financial problems.

"The priority is everything east of Italy as far as Russia," Ermotti said. "And we are looking at India, China and the Middle East, but only if something comes up," he added.

UniCredit, which owns German bank HVB, reaps half its revenues from outside Italy, mainly in central and eastern Europe, where it is the biggest lender.

Ermotti said there was a "great opportunity," although it would take time, for a bank such as UniCredit to take on structured debt from operators who could no longer afford to have such volatile exposure on their books.

"One of the main opportunities is the simplification and redistribution of the mountain of structured debt built up in recent years and that many operators cannot allow themselves to keep in their accounts," Ermotti said. (Reporting by Jo Winterbottom, Editing by Peter Blackburn)