Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 10, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 10, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleNorway’s NBIM, holding c.2.9% of MPS (~$935 m as of end‑2025), backs CEO Luigi Lovaglio’s reappointment and will oppose rival slate including Fabrizio Palermo — underscoring its support for minority-nominated candidates and board accountability.
MILAN, April 10 (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund manager, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), on Friday said it backed the reappointment of Luigi Lovaglio as chief executive of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
NBIM held a 2.87% stake in Monte dei Paschi (MPS) at the end of 2025, with a market value of $935 million, the fund manager said on its website. NBIM is the sixth largest shareholder in MPS, according to LSEG data.
Lovaglio has been ruled out for reappointment by the MPS board, which is proposing naming as CEO Fabrizio Palermo - currently at the helm of utility ACEA and the former head of Italian state agency CDP.
Palermo also sits on the board of insurer Generali where he has been appointed by Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, a key shareholder in both Generali and MPS.
Lovaglio was voted out by the MPS board after winning its backing for a plan to complete the takeover of Mediobanca and merge the two banks.
Approved by the boards of both lenders, the plan — which would see MPS buy the remaining 14% of Mediobanca and take it private — still requires shareholder approval.
Were the slate of nominees proposed by the MPS board to win, Italian rules mandate a second vote on individual candidates.
In such an instance, NBIM said it would vote against Palermo and a number of other directors including banker Corrado Passera, ACEA board member Alessandro Caltagirone, current MPS Chairman Nicola Maione and the head of the nominations committee Domenico Lombardi.
NBIM has a policy of supporting minority-nominated candidates in a bundled-voting system such as the Italian one, where nominees are part of a slate.
However, in outlining the rationale for its MPS vote, NBIM also said shareholders should have the right to seek changes to the board when it does not act in their best interest.
(Reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Terje Solsvik in Olso, editing by Alvise Armellini)
Norges Bank Investment Management supports the re-election of Luigi Lovaglio as CEO of Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
NBIM held a 2.87% stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena at the end of 2025, valued at $935 million.
The MPS board has proposed Fabrizio Palermo as the new CEO.
NBIM said it would vote against the proposed candidates including Palermo if there is a vote on individual nominees, supporting minority-nominated candidates instead.
Lovaglio supported a plan for MPS to complete the takeover of Mediobanca and merge the two banks, which still requires shareholder approval.
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