Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). A takeover battle worth billions could be on the cards in the Italian banking sector. The country’s largest banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A., announced on Monday, 8 June 2026, that it intends to acquire its smaller rival, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (MPS), based in Siena, for €30.6 billion. Intesa Sanpaolo is a major Italian bank founded in 2007 through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI. It is headquartered in Turin and is the second-largest bank in Italy, with a strong international presence, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region. Intesa Sanpaolo dominates the Italian market and has more than 12 million customers. The bank is also known for its international expansion and has made investments in various countries, including Switzerland.
This would be the largest bank merger in the country’s history. With this move, Intesa is attempting to sideline its rival Banco BPM. The latter had already announced at the weekend its intention to merge with Monte dei Paschi. A bidding war is now set to unfold for the former crisis-hit bank, which was bailed out by the Italian state nine years ago.
MPS shares rose by just under ten per cent in Milan this morning. Intesa Sanpaolo shares, by contrast, fell by just under four per cent, whilst Banco BPM’s share price dropped by around half a per cent.
Last year, Monte dei Paschi itself took over its rival Mediobanca, whilst Banco BPM acquired the asset manager Anima. The attempt by the major bank Unicredit to buy Banco BPM, however, failed. Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel has since been focusing on a takeover of Frankfurt-based Commerzbank.
Unicredit had also built up a significant stake in the insurer Generali last year. MPS, in turn, had become Generali’s largest investor following its takeover of Mediobanca last year. Since then, the institution – which was bailed out by the Italian state in 2017 and reprivatised in 2023 and 2024 – has been regarded as a sought-after takeover target.
In 2020, Intesa secured a fifth of the Italian market with the purchase of the medium-sized bank UBI, thereby overtaking Unicredit. Due to antitrust restrictions, the institution subsequently stayed out of the wave of consolidation in the Italian banking sector. A merger between Intesa and MPS would create the second-largest banking group in the eurozone after Spain’s Santander – with a market capitalisation of €126 billion.
