It’s the most ancient Bank in activity. We are talking about the Monte of Paschi in Siena, that, recently in 2011, has passed through the worse crisis period. The priceless document we are talking about today in fact, was issued in 1624. The longest lasting bank in the world was founded in 1472 as a pawnshop to give help to the underprivileged classes of the population of Siena. The Palace Salimbeni’s office was founded by the Courts of the Republic of Siena with the name of Monte Pius in 1472, when its statute, which originated from the “Statute of Paschi” that was adopted, drawn up by the Sienese in 1419 in order to regulate all the activities related to agriculture and sheep-rearing in Maremma. After the annexation of Siena to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany the activities of Monte Pius expanded outside the loan on pledge without interests, and in particular began the secured credit activity to the landowners. In 1850 the Mount became a public bank, because it began as a tax collector.
In 1624 a second monte was born, specialized in agrarian credit, called not-vacant monte of the city’s Paschi and state of Siena, to which the Grand Duke Ferdinand II conceded under guarantee of debts the revenues of Maremma’s state-owned pastures (the Paschi). Just the document under consideration today, was issued by Monte not-vacant of Paschi. In 1629 a major scandal broke, involving the chamberlain of the office Armenio Melari, in charge between 1602 and 1622. He was accused by the city authorities of embezzling 40 thousand crowns (2 million current euro), from the funds of the Monte, and sentenced to death by hanging. But it seemed that the condemned managed to escape and hide in a convent, without leaving a trace. In 1783 the two Monte were unified and the bank took its current name in 1872. With the unification of Italy, the bank extended its business throughout the Italian peninsula, initiating new activities, including the mortgage credit. It was the first experience in Italy.
In 1929 the Bank participated in the merger between Tuscan Credit and the Bank of Florence gave birth to the Tuscany Bank. With the bank law of 1936, the Monte of Paschi of Siena was declared public credit institution. The Bank equipped itself with a new statute that, despite various modifications, remained in force until 1995: according to it, during the summit appointments, the Sienese and Tuscan local autonomies had a share in. Between 1990 and 1995, the Monte of Paschi of Siena was the first bank in Italy to diversify its business in bank insurance, with the Monte of Paschi Vita. By Ducato Gestioni it operated in investment trust. In 1990 it acquired the control of Tuscan Mediocredit and INCA (National Institute for Agricultural Credit), whose activities converged in MPS Bank for the firm and later in MPS Capital Services. It also acquired controlling interests in foreign banks in Belgium, Switzerland and France. On August 8, 1995 the decree of the Minister of Treasury gave rise to two institutions: the Bank Monte of Paschi of Siena S.p.A. and the Monte of Paschi of Siena Foundation, a no-profit institution. The MPS foundation is located in Palace Sansedoni. This is a no-profit institution having by statute the purpose in assistance and charity, as well as socially useful in the fields of scientific research, of health and art, particularly with reference to the city and the province of Siena. On June 25, 1999 the Bank Monte of Paschi of Siena is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange with a takeover bid that records purchase requests ten times the offer. With the quotation on the Stock Exchange, an intense phase of territorial and operating expansion began. Stakes in significant regional banks with strong local roots were acquired, including the Agricultural Bank of Mantua (BAM) and the Bank of Salento (later Bank 121). The acquisition of BAM allowed the Bank to increase its presence in northern Italy, and to the Bank of Salento mainly in the South. It gave life to the expansion of production facilities, in the sector of specializing credit and financial products for companies, as well as in the sector of consumer credit, with Consum.it society and in investment banking and asset management, in particular with the MPS Leasing & Factoring Bank. In parallel, they proceeded with the internal reorganization of the Group, finalized to the application of specialist multi-market model. On November 8, 2007, the Monte of Paschi of Siena announced with a note that it had reached an agreement with Bank Santander for the acquisition of Bank Antonveneta for 9 billion euro, excluding the subsidiary interbank remained in the ownership of the Spanish Bank. In 2010 it got through the “street test” carried out by the Committee of European. But 2011 is the most difficult year for the bank that, before the crisis is the fourth Italian bank in the ranking of the 15 banks with the highest capitalization among those listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. MPS closed 2011 with an impressive net loss: 4,69 billion euro. At the meeting of April 27, 2012, on advice of MPS Foundation, Alessandro Profumo, managing director of Unicredit from 1988 to 2010, was appointed chairman of Bank’s CDA. Fabrizio Viola, who from January 2012 was General Manager, became managing director. On June 27, 2012, the new plan of reorganization of Monte of Paschi of Siena was approved, strongly marked to costs reduction and rationalization. The plan involved the loss of over 4.600 jobs with the incorporation of subsidiaries and the closure of 400 branches within 2015. The trade unions of the Group were opposed to this reorganization plan and announced general strikes on March 16, 2012 and July 27, 2012. The participation in such initiatives was very high, with adherence to the strike of approximately 85% of the staff, with the consequent closure of 90% of branches throughout the national territory. Thick protests (with marches and rallies) were held in Siena (with over four thousand participants) and in other Italian cities. Among the political initiatives in regard, in May 2012, the Italy of Value’s senators Elio Lannutti and Francesco Pardi, asked the Minister of Economy and Finance, Vittorio Grilli, the commissioner of Montepaschi. Following the purchase of Antonveneta for 10 billion euro, the bank suffered a heavy financial flip that also involved the MPS Foundation, the main shareholder.
The new management team had an industrial plan for 2012-2015 to reduce the cost of 565 million euro, disposal of assets, write-down of goodwill (for a figure to be determined) and the liquidity required to the Italian state of 3,4 billion euro (by means of the so-called Monti bonds). On June 9, 2014 a capital increase of 5 billion euro was approved, intended to upset the share orders. On October 26, 2014 the stress test of the central Bank rejected it. For this reason Mps is forced to launch a new capital increase of 3 billion euro up to 90%, occurred from May 25 at the beginning of June 2015, just one year after the previous one. The Mps share lost 39,2% in the stock exchange in the last 5 sessions in October 2014. On June 2015 the Bank ended the refund of Monti bonds. While the capital is repaid in cash, part of the interests (240 million) are reimbursed by shares, making the Italian state shareholder of the Bank with 4% of the capital. MPS currently constitutes , together with other companies of the group, the third Italian banking group by number of branches after Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. It’s active on the whole Italian territory and on the main international markets. The share of today represents one of the most important documents both for the historical level and the investment of Italian Scripophily. There are conflicting assessments because of the document’s rarity: the current price is around 5 thousand euro, definitely under dimensioned compared to documents in the same level of other nations.