Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena (FMPS) is a

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

organization based in

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The foundation was in fact the original

statutory corporation A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, thus, they are statutes owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in ...

of Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Due to

Legge Amato Legge is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander Legge (1866–1933), US businessman, president of International Harvester * Anthony Legge (1939–2013), British archaeologist specialized in zooarchaeology *Arthur Kaye Legge ...

, in 1995 there was a separation:

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (), known as BMPS or just MPS, is an Italian bank. Tracing its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472 () and established in its present form in 1624 (), it is the world's oldest or second oldest bank ...

became the company controlling the banking business, meanwhile the statutory corporation became Fondazione MPS, a foundation and private legal person which held the bank's shares. Since the 1936 statute 16 members of the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena were appointed by local authorities: 8 members by the municipality of

, 5 by the

province of Siena The province of Siena ( it, provincia di Siena, link=no, ) is a province in Tuscany, Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena. Geography The province is divided into seven historical areas: * Alta Val d'Elsa * Chianti senese * The urban area o ...

, 1 by the

University of Siena The University of Siena ( it, Università degli Studi di Siena, abbreviation: UNISI) in Siena, Tuscany, is one of the oldest and first publicly funded universities in Italy. Originally called ''Studium Senese'', the institution was founded in 1240 ...

, 1 by the Tuscany region and the latter by Archdioceses of Siena, Colle Val d’Elsa and Montalcino. The Foundation appoints the MPS governing body whose governance and operativity has been highly influenced by the Italian politic since the 20th century.

History

The foundation was the major shareholders of

. As of December 31, 1996, FMPS reported total assets of €2,696,800,000. Between 1999 and 2000, FMPS's assets began substantially increasing as an effect of the bank's public listing in the

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...

. As of December 31, 2007, assets were €6,380,083,884, 30% of which was capital in

. During 2008, the foundation injected new capital into the bank, as

issued new shares to finance its acquisition of

Banca Antonveneta Banca Antonveneta S.p.A. was an Italian bank based in Padua, Italy. The bank was absorbed into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in 2013. In 2008, it was the 9th largest banking group in Italy in terms of customer loans and the 8th largest in terms ...

from

Banco Santander Banco Santander, S.A., doing business as Santander Group (, , Spanish: ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in all global financial centres ...

. As of December 31, 2008, assets were €6,721,533,109, but now the investment in

represented more than 70% of it, a huge increase from the previous year which represented an inversion away from the trend of prudent diversification that was taking place in prior years. At this point, FMPS's stake in

was €4,805,805,166 and included 45.9% of all ordinary shares. The foundation also owned a 0.84% stake in

Sanpaolo IMI Sanpaolo IMI S.p.A. was an Italian banking and insurance conglomerate, based in Turin. It employed about 44,000 people and had about 7 million customers. On 24 August 2006 a merger with Banca Intesa was announced, which on 1 December 2006 was app ...

in 2006. However, in the following years, the bank would suffer huge losses from

non-performing loan A non-performing loan (NPL) is a bank loan that is subject to late repayment or is unlikely to be repaid by the borrower in full. Non-performing loans represent a major challenge for the banking sector, as it reduces the profitability of banks, and ...

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. F ...

contracts. Its

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...

fell and it was forced to recapitalize multiple times by issuing new shares. FMPS's assets fell to €2,562,696,198 as of December 31, 2011. The foundation failed to purchase all the new shares assigned issued by Banca Monte dei Paschi, and also started selling shares, so its stake in the bank also dropped. As of December 31, 2013, assets were €1,205,497,787. In 2014, the foundation sold most of the stake it held in Monte dei Paschi; 3,621,277,308 shares sold for about €0.2352 per share. On March 31 the foundation also formed a

shareholders' agreement A shareholders' agreement (sometimes referred to in the U.S. as a stockholders' agreement) (SHA) is an agreement amongst the shareholders or members of a company. In practical effect, it is analogous to a partnership agreement. It can be said that ...

with Fintech Advisory and BTG Pactual Europe, a subsidiary of

BTG Pactual BTG Pactual is a Brazilian financial company that operates in the markets of investment banking, wealth management, asset management, corporate lending and sales and trading. It offers advisory services in mergers and acquisitions, wealth planni ...

. In the agreement, 5.48% voting rights of BMPS would vote collectively. After another capital increase, the agreement would only bind for 0.498% stake. As of December 31, FMPS's stake in the bank was valued at just €85,864,810, 12.91% of total assets, €0.67128 per shares times 127,912,863. 2014's total assets were €664,776,767 as of December 31.

ACRI Acri (Northern Calabrian, Calabrian: ) is a town of 19.949 inhabitants in the northern part of Calabria region in southern Italy. Since 17 September 2001 Acri has had the "status" of city. Acri's coat of arms is represented by three mountains s ...

, a trade association of

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution whose primary purpose is accepting savings account, savings deposits and paying interest on those deposits. History of banking, They originated in Europe during the 18th century with the aim of providi ...

s and

banking foundation Banking foundation is a type of foundation that originated as a bank. The banking reforms split the banks (usually local and community owned savings banks, as a statutory corporation) into limited company and holding company (or banking foundation). ...

, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the new regulation on the assets of the foundations in 2015. The new regulations require the foundation to not invest more than one-third of the assets in a single entity. As at December 31, 2015, total assets were €561,049,998. FMPS also owned all the units of Quaestio's Quaestio Capital Fund Global Diversified I Fund, which had net asset value of approximately €236,000,000 at that time. As of 31 December 2020, the foundation reported on its balance sheets assets of €543,836,006, down almost 92% from 2008's all time high, and down almost 80% from 1996's starting point. Of these assets 6.4% was mostly real estate, 10.1% representing liquidity ready to be deployed and 82.9% representing financial assets FMPS is invested in, managed in part by Quaestio Capital Management SGR and in part by the foundation itself, also including mission related assets. The stake in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's capital dropped to just 0.003% of the bank's shares, an almost insignifant amount of FMPS's assets.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1995 establishments in Italy Organizations established in 1995 Montepaschi Group Banking foundations based in Italy Organisations based in Siena