(30 August 2012 – Europe) The world’s oldest bank, Italy’s Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena, has posted a loss of €1.617 billion (A$1.92 billion) for the first half of 2012, after taking write-downs on troubled assets.The bank, which was founded in 1472, said in a statement that the bulk of the write-down was taken on its CGU Privati BMPS unit as well Banco Antonveneta, a 2007 acquisition analysts had deemed overpriced.
The write-downs, already announced in June, were made ‘in the wake of a material deterioration in macroeconomic conditions which worsened significantly in the last few months as did forecasts for the banking sector in the 2012-2015 period,’ the bank said in a statement.
In the same period last year, the bank posted a €261.4 million profit.
The bank has also said it would reduce its workforce by 4600 people by 2015.