FLORENCE, ITALY – The Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena to decide to increase the size of a planned rights issue to 5 billion euros.
Italy’s third biggest lender has already approved a capital increase of 3 billion euros to be launched in May, but the bank said on Tuesday it was considering a bigger cash call to help it pass a health check of lenders by the European Central Bank and repay state aid this year.
The Board of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena was officially convened for tomorrow morning, April 18, 2014.
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the oldest surviving bank in the world and Italy’s third largest bank. Founded in 1472 by the magistrate of the city state of Siena, Italy, as a “mount of piety”, it has been operating ever since.
Today it has approximately 3,000 branches, 33,000 employees and 4.5 million customers in Italy, as well as branches and businesses abroad. A subsidiary, MPS Finance, handles investment banking. The bank’s main shareholder is the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena.