Italian Banks Agree To Merge

Banca Di Roma and Bipop Carire are two of Italy's worse performing stocks over the last 12 months. On Saturday the two banks announced their intention to merge and will combine their banking and asset management units into two separate businesses.

The boards of the two banks are expected to meet during the next few days to formally approve the merger, which will create Italy's fourth largest asset manager and the country's number three lender.