By Elena Vardon

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena shareholders voted to reinstate Luigi Lovaglio as chief executive, defying the recommendation of the departing board and capping weeks of governance turmoil at Italy's newly minted third-largest banking group.

A board list that included Lovaglio was the most popular among Monte dei Paschi's investors at the bank's annual general meeting held Wednesday, the lender said. The vote paves the way to give Lovaglio another mandate to integrate recently acquired Mediobanca after the bank's departing board pushed him out, revoked his powers and terminated his contract ahead of the meeting.

Lovaglio, who had been at the helm of the bank for four years, orchestrated the takeover of Mediobanca and in February presented a plan to combine its investment-banking heft and wealth-management business with Monte dei Paschi's retail banking operations.

The board list proposed by minority shareholder PLT Holding that included Lovaglio received support from just under half of shareholders present at the meeting, while a rival list proposed by the departing board got nearly 39% of the votes, Monte dei Paschi said. A third list was voted by 6.9% of shareholders, it said.

Shareholders representing around 65% of the share capital were present. These include a mix of key domestic and institutional investors.

As a result, Monte dei Paschi said it would appoint eight board members from the slate that received the highest number of votes, six from the list that ranked second and one from the third. Shares in the lender that is considered the oldest bank in the world still in operation closed 4.7% higher Wednesday.

Under Italian corporate rules, shareholders vote for competing slates of directors rather than individual candidates. The winning list secures the majority of board seats, and the newly formed board will then meet to formally appoint a CEO and a chair.

Lovaglio campaigned to regain his job in recent weeks. Earlier this month, he told The Wall Street Journal that continuity was necessary to minimize execution risk for the complex merger.

Monte dei Paschi and its departing board had encouraged shareholders to approve another candidate for the top job--Fabrizio Palermo, the CEO of Italian water operator Acea who previously ran state investment agency Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. The list also included the reappointment of Nicola Maione as Monte dei Paschi's chair, while PLT proposed former UniCredit chair Cesare Bisoni for the role.

The board argued that the bank needed fresh leadership with skills more closely aligned with new challenges and a greater openness to dialogue to see through the transformative integration of Mediobanca.

Maione withdrew his candidacy for the chair position following the vote.

The push for leadership change followed an investigation by Milan prosecutors into Lovaglio and two top shareholders over alleged market manipulation and supervisory obstruction tied to the Mediobanca bid. Lovaglio denies wrongdoing.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 16, 2026 03:10 ET (07:10 GMT)

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