Banca Popolare and BPM have 15 days at most to agree merger
Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano have 15 days at the most to reach agreement on a merger, Il Messaggero reported. This is the deadline given by the banks to Pierfrancesco Saviotti and Giuseppe Castagna, the CEOs of Banco Popolare and BPM respectively, the Italian-language daily noted in an unsourced report.
For a merger to go through the European Central Bank (ECB) will have to signal that it approves of the merger proposal, the report noted.
To help win over the ECB, the banks have offered to divest EUR 7bn in non-performing loans over three years to bring down the ratio of NPLs to total loans for the merged entity from 23% to 21%, the item noted.
Il Messaggero