Luigi Lovaglio, the manager who led Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in its recovery in recent years, is no longer at the helm of the Sienese bank. The board of directors has in fact revoked the powers of the CEO, and suspended him from the duties of general manager, after Lovaglio’s decision to run for a new mandate without the support of the outgoing directors.
The Board’s decision
The Board of Directors took the decision “taking into account the inclusion of Luigi Lovaglio, as a candidate for CEO, in the list that is running to elect the majority of directors presented by PLT Holding”. After having carried out the necessary investigations, also with the help of authoritative external consultants, the board decided to revoke the delegations granted to Lovaglio as CEO, assuming all the relevant powers, and also deciding, with immediate effect, to suspend him from the duties covered as general manager.
The management of ordinary activities, until the next shareholders’ meeting called, among other things, to appoint the new board of directors, is assigned to the Deputy General Manager Maurizio Bai, thus guaranteeing full continuity of the Bank’s activities.
The three lists for the renewal of the Board of Directors
The bank also confirmed that, in addition to the list of candidates for the office of directors presented by the outgoing Board of Directors, 2 lists of candidates for appointments to the Board of Directors and 3 lists of candidates for appointments to the Board of Statutory Auditors have been presented by the shareholders, within the deadline established by law and the Articles of Association, in view of the meeting of 15 April 2026
With reference to the list of candidates presented by PLT Holding, the Board of Directors “reserves the most appropriate assessment regarding the documentation concerning said list also with regard to compliance with corporate and regulatory legislation, initiating appropriate discussions with the competent authorities”, it is underlined.
The breakup
Lovaglio and the MPS board have been at odds over the CEO’s strategy for recently acquired Mediobanca, with some MPS shareholders disagreeing with Lovaglio’s proposal to fully merge the two banks. The conflict then accelerated last Saturday, when PLT Holding (the Tortora family’s holding company which holds a 1.2% stake in the Sienese institute) expressed its support for Lovaglio’s plan and proposed him for a new mandate, presenting a list of candidates to the board of directors that challenges the one presented by the outgoing board.
On Tuesday, MPS announced that its board of directors has decided to propose Fabrizio Palermo, CEO of the Roman utility Acea, as the sole candidate for the position of CEO, abandoning the previous decision to have three possible candidates.
The prosecutor’s investigation
Luigi Lovaglio has led MPS since 2022, during which time he oversaw the restructuring of the bank, which was saved from collapse by the Italian government in 2017. MPS was successfully reprivatised between 2023 and 2024.
In the financial statement report made available yesterday by MPS in view of the meeting, there is also an overview of the criminal proceedings pending before the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Milan involving the CEO in office who was the recipient, on 27 November 2025, of a notice of investigation relating to the voluntary public offering concerning the shares of Mediobanca.
On the basis of the provisional indictment, crimes of market manipulation and obstruction of the exercise of the functions of the Public Supervisory Authorities were hypothesized against Lovaglio, as well as the president of the Delfin Board of Directors and the person indicated as the “top management” of the Caltagirone Group. In particular, according to the accusatory approach, the conduct at issue (differentiated between the three suspects) was aimed at concealing from the market as well as from Consob, ECB and Ivass the existence of shareholder agreements between significant shareholders of Mediobanca, which would have resulted, on the one hand, in the alteration of the price of the relevant shares, and on the other, in the obstacle to the supervisory functions of the aforementioned Authorities. At present, among the numerous conducts contested against the three suspects, the CEO would only have been ascribed the conduct consisting in having allegedly concerted with the other co-suspects the OPS through which MPS would have acquired control of Mediobanca.
