Finance
Monte Dei Paschi Not Expected to Renew CEO Lovaglio
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
3 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
3 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleMonte dei Paschi di Siena is set to finalize a new board slate today, March 4, 2026, that excludes current CEO Luigi Lovaglio. Despite previous support, he failed to make the shortlist of 20 candidates for reappointment.
By Valentina Za
MILAN, March 4 (Reuters) - The board of Monte dei Paschi di Siena voted on Wednesday to exclude Chief Executive Luigi Lovaglio from the list of candidates for a new mandate, after a boardroom clash over the future of recently acquired Mediobanca, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Since leading Monte dei Paschi's (MPS) takeover of bigger rival Mediobanca last year, Lovaglio has irked major shareholder Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone by securing unanimous board approval for plans to acquire the remaining 14% of Mediobanca and delist it, sources previously told Reuters.
Caltagirone has denied a clash with Lovaglio, however, and said that matters were in the hands of the bank's board.
Boardroom disagreements prevented MPS from approving the financial terms of the full merger with Mediobanca in time for a strategy day on Friday, sparking a market selloff.
MPS on Wednesday received the European Central Bank's green light to draw up a list of nominees for an April shareholder vote that will name a new board, including the CEO and chairman, the two sources said. The ECB declined to comment.
The board had included Lovaglio in a preliminary list of 30 candidates prepared for the April vote, alongside veteran banker Corrado Passera, former UniCredit executive Carlo Vivaldi and ACEA CEO Fabrizio Palermo.
However, the board's nominations committee on Tuesday removed Lovaglio from a shortlist of 20 names, and a majority of directors on Wednesday backed the move, the sources added.
Caltagirone's son Alessandro sits on the MPS nominations committee, as well as on the board of ACEA, a utility led by Palermo in which the Caltagirone family is a shareholder.
Lovaglio's position has been weakened by a criminal probe by Milan prosecutors into the Mediobanca takeover. Amid the judicial scrutiny, Italy's government, which owns 4.9% of MPS, took a step back from the board selection process, after initially endorsing the manager.
On February 13, the MPS board confirmed that all of its members, including the CEO, possessed the "fit and proper" requirements imposed by supervisors, one of the sources said.
Lovaglio, 70, took the reins at MPS in 2022 and turned it around, helping Italy to sell down the 64% stake it held following a 2017 rescue.
The Mediobanca acquisition has placed MPS, which for a decade had teetered on the brink of collapse until the bailout, at the heart of Italy's financial system. The combined group owns a nearly 7 billion euro ($8 billion) stake in top Italian insurer Generali.
Lovaglio had been endorsed by MPS's single biggest shareholder, the Del Vecchio family's Delfin investment vehicle.
Prosecutors allege that Caltagirone, Delfin and Lovaglio covertly coordinated to seize control of Mediobanca and Generali. They have denied any wrongdoing.
($1 = 0.8592 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Gavin Jones, Louise Heavens and Edmund Klamann)
Current Chief Executive Luigi Lovaglio is not expected to be included in the final slate of nominees for Monte dei Paschi's new board.
Monte dei Paschi di Siena is expected to finalize its slate of board nominees later on Wednesday.
The board's nomination committee prepared the shortlist, which still requires approval from the full board.
Yes, Luigi Lovaglio was part of an earlier preliminary list of candidates but did not make the shorter list.
The vote to name a new board is scheduled for April.
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