The world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has received the European Union’s formal approval for a five-year restructuring plan and thousands of job cuts. <br /><br />Italy’s fourth-largest lender will receive a 5.4 billion-euro state bailout, which will remove a considerable weight from the country’s financial system.<br /><br />The state will take a 70 percent stake in the Tuscan bank, while the lender’s chairman said the state would exit in 2021, but added that nothing ruled out an earlier withdrawal.<br /><br />The EU says the bank has agreed to a drastic overhaul, which includes a salary cap for senior managers. But, 600 branches will be closed and 5,500 jobs lost.<br /><br />The move takes the total amount of Italian taxpayer funds deployed to rescue banks over the past week to more than 20 billion euros.<br />
