Intesa CEO rules out any deal taking national savings out of Italian hands

MILAN (Reuters) -Intesa Sanpaolo's CEO on Monday ruled out taking part in any deal that would take the management of national savings out of Italian hands, saying he recognised some financial sector mergers and acquisitions had national security concerns.

Intesa has kept out of the M&A wave sweeping Italian banking, but bankers have been expecting it to make a move to preserve its market leadership since CEO Carlo Messina was handed a new three-year term in April.

Messina said on Monday his bank could consider specific asset management or private banking deals, but added that Intesa was well aware of being an element of national security for Italy with the 1.4 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion) in customer financial assets it manages.

"I would never do it as an Italian, but I'm not so naive as to think that Intesa could just decide to take those savings elsewhere. That it would be free to do that," Messina told the annual meeting of the Italian FABI banking union.

Referring to special powers Rome has to vet banking deals on grounds of national security, he said 'golden power' rules "are part of the new world we live in".

Italy's biggest insurer Generali has sparked alarm in Rome by announcing a deal with French banking group BPCE to merge their respective asset management businesses, Generali Investments Holding and Natixis Investment Managers.

The deal has met opposition from leading Generali shareholders and has been criticised by the government. Generali has indicated it could drop it if it cannot dispel Rome's concerns.

On Monday, Messina said deals were unfolding in a way that was not in line with markets' best practice standards and was "not elegant, drawing unwanted attention to Italy".

Messina also warned that retail investors could lose money by investing in banks and insurers whose share prices have been inflated by M&A premiums.

"I don't hear anyone mentioning it. I'd worry about this were I in charge of protecting retail savings," he said.

($1 = 0.8789 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Gavin Jones, Gianluca Semeraro and Jan Harvey)