MPS nine-month profit rises 21.2% to €1.657 billion, beating forecasts

Nine-month results

Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) reported net profit of €1.657 billion for the first nine months of 2026, up 21.2% on the same period of 2025. The figures were published on Friday, 6 November. Revenue for the period reached €6.02 billion, up 5.6%, while operating gross profit rose 10.2% to €3.46 billion. Operating costs held steady at €2.56 billion, and the cost-to-income ratio fell two percentage points to 43%.

“The results for the first nine months of 2026 consolidate the group's profitable growth trajectory.”

Third quarter beats expectations

Third-quarter net profit rose 14.6% to €543 million, above the €533 million analysts had expected. Quarterly revenue reached €2 billion, which also topped expectations. Operating gross profit for the quarter climbed 14.8% to €1.16 billion, while the 3.1% decline from the second quarter was attributed to the typical seasonality of some revenue items. Dividends and income from holdings rose 15.8% to €529 million, mainly because of a larger contribution from the stake in Assicurazioni Generali, and trading income reached €355 million. The Cet1 ratio, fully loaded, stood at 16.4%, up from 16.3% in June, and these figures exclude period earnings given a planned payout of up to 100% of net profit.

Third-quarter 2026 net profit543

Analyst consensus533

Third-quarter 2026 net profit

543 € million

Analyst consensus

533 € million

Data from the article text

Intesa Sanpaolo takeover bid

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest bank, made a €34 billion cash-and-share bid for MPS in June. Intesa later raised its offer and threatened to walk away, and in late October MPS shareholders rejected a defence plan put forward by CEO Luigi Lovaglio. The offer secured the backing of the Del Vecchio family, the Tuscan bank's biggest investor. Intesa would need to break up MPS's branch network to address competition concerns. MPS said it is still analysing Intesa's offer and expects that work to be completed in November. Shareholders are due to begin deciding on the offer in the weeks ahead.

Taxes and lending

Taxes weighed on the nine-month accounts at €920 million, compared with €200 million a year earlier, when the group benefited from a reclassification of deferred tax assets. The 2026 charge reflects measures on banks in the budget law approved in December 2025, including a 4% non-deductible share of interest expense and a two-percentage-point increase in the IRAP rate. Loans to customers reached €150.8 billion, up €2.6 billion from 30 June 2026, driven mainly by mortgages. Non-performing loans fell to €3.7 billion from €3.9 billion at the end of 2025, and the cost of credit stood at 38 basis points against 40 at 31 December 2025. Intesa is expected to start the tender phase of its offer in the week of 23 November.