Italy's highest court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of former senior managers at Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) (MPS) as well as Deutsche Bank and Nomura over derivative deals blamed for playing a part in the downfall of the Tuscan lender.
Among the 15 defendants cleared by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation were former MPS Chairman Giuseppe Mussari and its former Managing Director Antonio Vigni and Deutsche (DBKGn.DE) and Nomura (8604.T).
A Milan appeals court ruling in May 2022 had already overturned a 2019 conviction of the former executives and the two banks over derivative deals that prosecutors alleged had helped MPS hide billions in losses.
The appeals court cancelled seizures imposed on Deutsche Bank and Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) for 64.9 million and 88 million euros, respectively.
Shares in MPS, 64% owned by the state, had rallied on Wednesday in anticipation of a verdict that has positive implications for the bank, which has set aside cash against legal risks. Shares closed up 5.7%.
The case centred on two derivatives transactions — dubbed Alexandria and Santorini — that Nomura and Deutsche Bank arranged for MPS in 2009.
Prosecutors said the deals helped MPS hide more than 2 billion euros of losses racked up after the ill-advised acquisition of a smaller rival in 2008, on the eve of the global financial crisis.
MPS, the world's oldest bank still in business and Italy's fifth biggest listed lender, had reached a court settlement in 2016 in the derivatives case at a cost of 10.6 million euros.
The scandal, together with more losses suffered by MPS during the euro zone debt crisis, had threatened to destabilise Italy's financial industry and forced the Siena-based lender to seek an 8 billion euro bailout in 2017.
In the initial trial in 2019 a Milan court convicted all the defendants from the three banks on allegations of false accounting and market manipulation for events that took place between 2008 and 2012.
All defendants have always denied any wrongdoing.
An appeal is ongoing for a separate case involving other former MPS top executives who were convicted in 2020 for incorrectly booking the Alexandria and Santorini transactions between 2012 and 2015.
