Italy plans to bolster Unicredit with plan for bad loans

Pedestrians pass a UniCredit SpA bank branch in Rome. Photo: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

Pamela Barbaglia and Valentina Za

Italy is working on a plan to take on about €14bn of UniCredit's impaired loans to make a takeover of state-owned Monte dei Paschi more attractive for the country's second-biggest bank, sources told Reuters.

Bad loan manager AMCO, which is backed by Rome and run by former UniCredit executive Marina Natale, is looking to hoover up around 60pc of UniCredit's problem debts while also ridding Monte dei Paschi of some high-risk loans, two sources said on condition of anonymity.