Italy’s finance minister has said a “solution” to rescue two struggling banks in the north-east Veneto region — Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca — is close and talks with EU authorities are “encouraging,” the Financial Times reported. The statement by Pier Carlo Padoan comes as Italy’s largest domestic lender Intesa Sanpaolo on Tuesday morning held a board meeting to discuss joining a consortium of Italian lenders — including UniCredit — to provide €1.2bn for the Veneto banks and pave the way for a state-led rescue of the two lenders, say people involved.

A group led by ArcelorMittal has won the race to buy Ilva, the Italian owner of Europe’s biggest steel plant that was nationalised after an alleged environmental disaster, the Financial Times reported. Carlo Calenda, Italy’s economic development minister, signed a decree on Monday approving the €1.8bn offer, led by the world’s largest steelmaker, in a move that will deliver the century-old industrial concern back into private ownership.

A failure to find a solution to a crisis gripping Italy's Veneto-based banks would result in consequences similar in impact to a default by Greece, the head of one of the banks was quoted as saying on Friday. Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca have requested a state bailout to help fill a combined capital shortfall of 6.4 billion euros ($7.2 billion), the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Brussels and Italy have agreed on a rescue of Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, outlining a draft plan that involves significant cost cuts, some investors taking a hit and executives facing a cap on pay, the Financial Times reported. The announcement brings the long-running saga over the future of Italy’s oldest lender towards a close, with Rome signing off on an investor bail-in and the kind of deep restructuring MPS fiercely resisted for more than a year.

Level, the new budget airline from IAG SA, may start flying across the Atlantic from Rome in the latest bid by a low-cost carrier to capitalize on Alitalia SpA’s insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Level, which will lift its fleet of two Airbus SE A330 jets to five in 2018, will initially focus its expansion on Italy and France, IAG Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh told reporters ahead of Level’s inaugural flight on Thursday. Rival Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA this week said it’s adding U.S. routes from Rome as bankruptcy proceedings force Alitalia to scale back.

Italy’s troubled banks may suffer an additional 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in losses from the sale of their bad loans at current market prices, said Ignazio Visco, Bank of Italy governor and ECB governing council member. “If they were sold at the very low prices offered by the few large specialist debt collection agencies active in the market today, which pursue very high returns, the amount of additional writedowns would be in the order of 10 billion euros,” Visco said on Wednesday at the central bank’s annual meeting in Rome, Bloomberg News reported.

Italian government debt is under-performing its eurozone rivals this morning as investors hone in on the prospect of earlier than expected elections in the bloc’s third largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Italy’s 10-year debt yield, a measure of the government’s borrowing costs, has gained over 2 basis points (0.02 percentage points) this morning to hit 2.2 per cent – a two week high – after former PM Matteo Renzi raised the prospect of an autumn vote. Yields fall when prices rise.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Monday it was in exclusive talks with a domestic fund and a group of investors over the sale of its bad loan portfolio, which it needs to offload before it can be taken over by the state, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The negotiations mark the latest stage in a long-running process to rescue the world's oldest bank, which includes efforts to enable it to shed its bad loans.

Italy’s troubled mid-sized lenders Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca have “all the public guarantees necessary” to shore up their liquidity, Italy’s finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Pier Carlo Padoan, finance minister, made the statement after meeting with the bosses of struggling banks Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca on Thursday morning, the Financial Times reported. Both lenders are at risk of being bailed in under EU rules.

Italy’s plan for an 8.8 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA faces resistance from the European Central Bank, which is concerned the lender may struggle to maintain capital buffers as it tries to get back on its feet, according to people with knowledge of the matter.