Another blow for battered Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.<br /><br /> According to the experts at French investment firm Exane, it is about to be removed from the STOXX Europe 600 index – a listing of the region’s top shares. <br /><br /> Monte dei Paschi, which is the world’s oldest bank, has seen its shares lose more than 90 percent of their value since 2007 following a series of fraud and mismanagement scandals.<br /><br /> After coming dead last in the latest Europe-wide bank stress tests to see how it would cope with another financial crisis, the bank just announced an emergency plan to try to ensure its survival. <br /><br /> Banking industry shares have been heavily hit this year as the sector struggles to grow while pressured by an ultra-low-rates monetary policy amid worries about their capital strength and exposure to bad loans.<br /><br /> In a clear blow to the sector, STOXX Ltd will reportedly exclude bank heavyweights Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank from Europe’s top 50 blue-chip companies next week. <br /><br /> STOXX will announce the results of the quarterly STOXX review on Aug 23 with the reshuffle effective on September 19.<br /><br /> Besides Monte Paschi, Exane said the “highly likely” deletions would be Banco Comercial Portugues, Unipol Gruppo Finanziario, Thomas Cook, Eurobank Ergasias and OCI.<br />
