Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit and Assicurazioni Generali have agreed to divest their stakes in Bank of Italy.
The move comes in response to a law approved last year that requires investors to reduce their stake in Bank of Italy to 3% by the end of 2016, Reuters reported.
Intesa Sanpaolo, a banking firm formed as a merger between Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, is to sell a 5.7% stake to a group of local pension funds including Enpam, Inarcassa, Cassa Forense, Enpaia, Cassa Ragionieri and bank Banca del Piemonte for €430m, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
UniCredit agreed to sell a 3.2% stake for €240m and Generali would sell a 0.86% stake for €54m bringing its stake to 5.5%.
However, the stake sales will go ahead upon receiving approval from the Bank of Italy.
Intesa and UniCredit are the largest shareholders in Bank of Italy with 42% and 22% stakes respectively.
Besides Intesa, UniCredit and Generali, other financial institutions own less than 3% stakes in Bank of Italy.
Bank of Italy’s share capital has been raised from €156,000 to €7.5bn.
Based in Rome, Bank of Italy is the central bank of Italy and a part of the European System of Central Banks.
The central bank maintains and supervises monetary and financial stability; the foreign exchange market interventions and management of the foreign reserves; the operations on behalf of the ministry for the economy and finance.
It also manages investment portfolio and treasury functions; and maintains efficiency, stability, and security in payment system.
Image: Bank of Italy is the central bank of Italy. Photo: courtesy of Geobia / Wikipedia.