Monte Paschi lifts capital increase to €3bn
The board of Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the biggest loser from European regulators stress tests in October, has lifted a proposed capital increase to up to €3bn in what will be its fourth in six years.
In a statement released late on Wednesday, MPS said it had decided to increase the size of its rights issue from €2.5bn "in order to have a capital buffer" as it is required to reach a common equity tier 1 ratio of 10.2 per cent by the European Central Bank, Rachel Sanderson reports from Milan.
The new maximum amount of the rights issue would be backed by a pre-underwriting agreement made up of the same 10 financial institutions that signed up to its previously proposed capital hike.
The bank added it had made a loss of €5.3bn for the full year of 2014 "affected by write downs on its loan portfolio.