* BAD BANK Reuters and other news sources continue to report the idea that the ECB has asked Italy to provide further information on its idea of the formation of Bad Banks to manage national lenders NPL’s and its ready to work with Italy to find a solution.
* BMPS Consob announced that it has extended the short selling ban until the end of the trading session on 21 Jan. Reuters reports comments that the BMPS banking foundation confirmed its trust in the bank's management, adding the share losses the lender suffered over the past two days were without any "objective justification"
Reuters reports comments from CEO Mr Vioala that the share price performance has nothing to do with fundamentals that have actually improved also in Q4 ’15 confirming the 9 mth ’15 trend. He added that the liquidity at the bank at year end ’15 was very positive and at levels not seen for 4 years.
* UBI / BMPS / POP MILANO / BCO POP Il Corriere reports that UBI could have a look at an alliance with BMPS if it merges with Pop Milano. Sugegsted that the UBI / PMI merger would create execess capital of Euro 1.2 bn and that this could be used to facilitate an integration with BMPS.
Also reported that some analysts think that that if PMI merges with Bca Popolare a rights issue of Euro 2 bn could be required.