bpm e Banco Popolare are getting closer to merging. The decisive step forward should have arrived yesterday at the Treasury, with the meeting between the minister Pier Carlo Padoan, the managing director of Bpm Joseph Chestnut and the number one of Ubi Banca Victor Massiah.
The two managers would have become convinced that insisting on the alternative option (a three-way merger between Bpm, Ubi and Monte dei Paschi di Siena) would have risked further complicating things and slowing down the entire reorganization of the sector. Hence the address taken by Bpm, left free to accelerate on the road to Verona.
Positive signals would also come from ECB, with whom Castagna has maintained close contacts in these hours, which he would have reassured about the capital needs of the post-merger aggregate, at least partially placating the fears of the Milanese front on the weight of the non-performing loans in the Banco.
The next management board of Bpm is convened for Tuesday 9 February with the examination of the 2015 accounts on the agenda. The Bank's board of directors is also scheduled for the same week, but in both cases, naturally, if necessary, the boards can be convened on extraordinary urgency.
Before the one scheduled for 9 February for the examination of the 2015 accounts, according to what has been learned, Bpm has another meeting of the CDG on the agenda exactly one week before, i.e. next Tuesday 2 February.
