ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government plans to extend by 6 months tax breaks aimed at spurring tie-ups in the country’s banking sector, while also reducing their amount, according to a draft of the 2022 budget seen by Reuters.
The scheme was a key plank of the incentive package the Treasury had tabled to sell Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) to bigger rival UniCredit. However, talks over the potential merger deal collapsed on Sunday.
Rome plans to push back the deadline to end the tax breaks to mid-2022 from Dec. 31 2021 at present, the draft says.
The government is also looking to set a new cap on incentives for bank merges at between a minimum of 500 million euros and the current cap of 2% of assets of the smaller company involved, according to the draft.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante, editing by Gavin Jones)
