Monte dei Paschi: the State rescued it and has not yet got its money back. Now Intesa wants to buy it and promises its shareholders €61 billion in dividends
12 November 2026, 16:13
On Tuesday 10 November Intesa Sanpaolo published the prospectus for the offer with which it wants to buy Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which since 2025 has also controlled Mediobanca. To the Siena bank's shareholders it offers newly issued Intesa shares plus a cash portion, for a total value of €31.4 billion. The European Central Bank gave its approval on 27 October; still missing are the competition authority and the acceptance of holders of at least half the capital plus one share.
The document describes a splendid deal, and there is no reason to doubt it: between 2025 and 2029 the plan promises the new group's shareholders €61 billion in dividends. Part of that money is put up by the staff: whoever leaves with seniority and a full salary will be replaced by a young recruit on a lower grade, often part-time, and the difference goes to the shareholders.
Before it became a deal, however, Monte was a rescue. In 2017 the bank was on the verge of failure and the Ministry of Economy recapitalised it; in 2022 the ministry took part in a further capital increase. Across the two operations, including compensation to subordinated bondholders, the Treasury spent about €7 billion of public money. When, with interest rates rising, the lender returned to profit, the ministry sold more than half of it in three tranches, between November 2023 and the same month of 2024, raising about €2.7 billion. Even counting the dividends received and the small stake it still holds, valued at June prices, it remains between two and two and a half billion euros short. The State, in other words, came in when nobody wanted the bank and left before anyone wanted all of it.
That shortfall has been paid by taxpayers, through the Exchequer. In return, people in many provinces will have fewer competing branches to choose from: according to the competition authority's preliminary analyses, the new group would hold significant positions in lending to households in 72 provinces, and in eleven it would exceed the legal ceiling on its share of deposits. As a remedy, Intesa has already signed an agreement to sell the Siena brand and part of the branches to Unipol, to be merged into Bper. To protect competition, then, as one giant is born another one grows fatter, and anyone seeking a mortgage in the contested provinces will find fewer doors to knock on.
Monte's losses, in 2017, were shared with taxpayers too; the gains of the plan stay with the shareholders.
This article was prompted by a news item published in Il Fatto Quotidiano on 11 November 2026.