Banks

BancoBpm proposes an aggregation deal to Mps

The operation is aimed at creating a new banking giant with 6 billion in profits - Tomorrow the offer on the table of Siena's board of directors

7 June 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The banking risiko has restarted. Everything accelerated in a few hours after weeks in which the dialogue between the top management of Banco Bpm and Mps tried to sketch out possible options for an aggregation. Triggering the banking aggregation caledoscope was the market hypothesis of an offer by Bper for the Mps group. News that has triggered the first move of 2026 on the credit chessboard. One thing is certain, it will not be the last: "Banco Bpm proposes to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena to discuss and agree on an aggregation operation. Everything has yet to take shape, Banco is promising 1.1 billion in synergies to its shareholders, and the reaction of Piazza Affari and, of course, its competitors will be seen shortly. What is certain is that the bank merger race has started again. A new wave destined to change Piazza Affari in which the banking sector has dominated, as a theme and performance in 2025, with six IPOs, most of them hostile bids. Now it starts again. The first round of the merry-go-round belongs to Giuseppe Castagna.

What Banco Bpm offers

The offer of the Banco Bpm group for the Siena-based institute led by Luigi Lovaglio will be on the table of the Mps board of directors on Monday: "The operation is aimed at creating a new banking and financial group of reference in Italia, the second largest operator in the country." The aggregation would be implemented in the typical manner of "so-called merger of equals, the most coherent solution to align all shareholders on a common industrial design, preserving the DNA of the two institutions and enhancing their respective cultures," reads a note.

"Today, Banco BPM's Board of Directors unanimously resolved to send a communication to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. ("MPS") in which Banco BPM represented its interest in initiating a dialogue aimed at discussing and agreeing on a potential aggregation transaction agreed between the two institutions in terms of customer loans and deposits," the note reads.

Next on Mediobanca

In this context, BPM explained, "the transaction would fit into the Mediobanca integration process currently underway in an efficient and complementary manner, allowing for a coordinated and contextual development of the product factories involved and strengthening their industrial contribution within the new Group. In line with this approach, the aggregation would be marked by a governance structure based on criteria of balance and representativeness, aimed at reflecting the contribution and the specificities of the two banks and ensuring adequate involvement in the main decision-making processes, as well as safeguarding the historical locations and the link with the reference territories". For the time being, Mps is not commenting and awaits the board's evaluations already scheduled in the next few hours to integrate the governance.

Castagna's strategy

The operation, explains the group led by Giuseppe Castagna, aims to create a new giant with around EUR 6 billion in profits when fully operational and would be based on a "clear strategic rationale, based on a series of key elements that, taken together, express the main drivers of value creation of the group resulting from the aggregation": "creation of a new national champion, the second largest domestic banking operator, able to face the new challenges dictated by the evolution of the banking market and to support the country's growth; geographical integration with complete coverage of the entire national territory, with a deep-rooted presence in the Italian regions with the greatest potential (in particular, first operator by number of branches in Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto) and a strengthening of competitive positioning also in several regions of Central and Southern Italia industrial complementarity of the product factories and high upside deriving from their possible optimisation, with reference both to the activities historically outsourced by MPS and recently internalised by Banco BPM, and to the complementary product factories contributed by the MPS-Mediobanca pole"

Generali's share

Obviously, the issue does not only concern typically banking activities. Through Mediobanca, Mps controls 13.32% of Generali: "Further benefits deriving from the shareholding in Assicurazioni Generali," Banco Bpm argues, "whose decisive relevance would make it possible to broaden the perimeter of the strategic options available to the group, in the interest of the shareholders of all entities and their respective stakeholders

Synergies for 1.1 billion

In short, the first draft of Banco Bpm's project envisages a "significant synergy potential when fully implemented in excess of 1.1 billion euro before tax, of which over 650 million in cost synergies and over 450 million in revenue synergies, in turn generated for about 250 million by higher revenues on the networks and about 200 million by optimising the product factories. According to Castagna, the deal would lead to 'achieving an adequate operational scale to support technological investments and competitive positioning, enabling competition with major international operators and new digital players'

The market capitalisation of the group that would come to life is potentially estimated at over EUR 50 billion, which would strengthen its capital market positioning and broaden its investor base.

No comment from the French

No comment from Credit Agricole, Banco Bpm's first shareholder with 22.9% of the capital. The French group's representatives on the board of directors did, however, support the decision to start a dialogue with Monte, contributing to the 'unanimity' with which the resolution passed in the Banco board meeting. Positive then the first reactions from the political world: 'The merger between Banco Bpm and Mps, which seems to be taking shape today, is an excellent opportunity for the creation of the third national banking pole. If it succeeds, our financial system will certainly emerge strengthened. We will continue to closely follow the evolution of the banking risiko, while respecting market rules. Above all, it is important that, after all these financial transactions, the Italian business system is guaranteed more and more resources to grow and prosper,' said Forza Italia senator Pierantonio Zanettin, chairman of the parliamentary commission of enquiry into the financial and insurance banking system.