Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) is the world's oldest bank and Italy's seventh-biggest by assets, headquartered in Siena.
A crisis engulfed the bank in the early 2010s, requiring a government bail-out. As part of the rescue plan, shareholders and some creditors took losses, EUR26bn ($31bn) in non-performing loans were sold in tranches to investors and MPS slimmed down to a core operation serving retail customers plus small and medium-sized businesses. Bad loans, which peaked at 37% of gross consumer lending in 2017, fell below 2%. Stable profits returned in 2023. The bank's market value ballooned from EUR2bn in late 2022 to EUR28bn in January 2026.
David Rossi, an MPS executive, fell to his death from his third-floor office at the bank's headquarters in 2013, amid the crisis. Police and judges ruled it suicide. In March 2026, however, a parliamentary commission of inquiry said its expert analysis of Rossi's injuries indicated that the executive died because of "a crime". Who might have killed him remains a mystery.
The architect of MPS's revival was Luigi Lovaglio, its chief executive since 2022. In 2025 MPS launched what became a successful EUR16bn bid for Mediobanca, the country's pivotal investment bank. The bid was backed by Francesco Milleri (who runs Delfin, the Del Vecchio family investment fund) and Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, an 83-year-old Roman media and construction tycoon, both aligned with Giorgia Meloni's governing coalition.
Lovaglio, Milleri and Caltagirone are under investigation by prosecutors in Milan on suspicion of market manipulation. Prosecutors claim the three secretly hatched a plot to gain control of MPS, then Mediobanca, and ultimately Generali, Italy's biggest insurer. Under the alleged plot, Milleri and Caltagirone would, once their stakes were combined with MPS's Mediobanca holding, own 30% of the insurer's equity. All three deny wrongdoing.
On April 7th 2026 the outgoing board sacked Lovaglio after he refused to step down when he was left off its slate of new directors. His proposed replacement is Fabrizio Palermo, head of Acea, a Roman utility, who formerly ran Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy's postal-savings manager. Palermo has no experience in retail banking—a fact that reportedly troubles the European Central Bank. The sacking may reflect a falling-out between Lovaglio and Caltagirone over what to do with Mediobanca once acquired: the CEO's plan would see Mediobanca delisted and parts of its business, including the stake in Generali, absorbed into MPS, making it harder for the octogenarian to engineer a takeover of the insurer. Lovaglio headed a rival list drawn up by a minority shareholder. MPS's share price was down 14% since the start of the year, compared with a decline of 1% for European banks as a whole.
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