Italian bank BMPS: ECB wants it to get €8.8bn bailout

Italy's troubled third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), said Tuesday that the European Central Bank has called for it to receive a bailout of 8.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion).

The ECB's reported need for recapitalisation at BMPS is over three billion euros more than previously judged necessary.

The stricken BMPS, considered the world's oldest bank, said in a note that the ECB had expressed this opinion in letters to the Italian ministry of finance and economy.

The eurozone central bank indicated in the letters that the results of stress tests in 2016 showed that the capital needs of BMPS at 8.8 billion euros. It also noted that the bank's liquidity had deteriorated between November 30 and December 21.

Contacted by AFP Tuesday, an ECB spokeswoman said: "We don't make any comments on individual banks."

According to the Italian economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, the ECB arrived at its bailout figure for BMPS on Thursday. The Italian government would invest some six billion euros in the lender and the rest would be raised through bonds, the paper reported.

Italy on Friday approved a state-funded rescue of Tuscan lender BMPS without citing a specific figure. The move however is fraught with political and economic complications for a centre-left government preparing for an election in the next 15 months.

The state plans to dip into a debt-financed 20-billion-euro ($21-billion) war chest that was approved by parliament last week, adding to Italy's already massive debt burden and to borrowing costs which have ticked higher as a result of the current crisis.

Around a quarter of the rescue fund is going to be required immediately to inject cash into BMPS, which confirmed Thursday that it had failed to raise the capital it needed from private investors.

Trading in BMPS shares is currently suspended on the Milan market.