MILAN, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Investors are awaiting the outcome
of an Italian election that could trigger a sell-off in stocks
and bonds and renew concerns about the euro if the polls bring
an unstable government.

Opinion polls have suggested the centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) of Pierluigi Bersani could secure a narrow victory in
the recession-hit country, the euro zone’s No. 3 economy.

MILAN (Reuters) – Investors are awaiting the outcome a wide open Italian election that could trigger a sell-off in stocks and bonds and renew concerns about the euro if the polls bring an unstable government.

Polling stations open for a second and final day on Monday and exit polls will be published soon after they close at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT).

MILAN, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Italy’s new government, after
elections this weekend, must cut bureaucracy and taxes and
reform an ineffective legal system if the shrinking economy is
to be jolted back to life, businesses and foreign investors say.

Italians vote on Sunday and Monday for a successor to Mario
Monti’s technocrat government whose austerity policies saved
Italy from a Greek-style debt crisis but did nothing to pull it
out of deep recession.

MILAN, Feb 20 (Reuters) – For more than a century unskilled
Italians have gone abroad to escape poverty, but these days the
people running for the exits are among the country’s top brains.

A growing wave of technologists, researchers and
entrepreneurs is flowing away from the motherland. Few think
this weekend’s elections will do much to alleviate the gloom.

MILAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) – The leader of an
anti-establishment movement that is set to come third when it
contests its first general election in a few days whipped a
crowd of more than 30,000 into a rage against Italy’s corrupt
political system on Tuesday.

Beppe Grillo, a charismatic former comedian known for his
foul-mouthed jokes, asked established politicians to “surrender”
to the Italian people, drawing applause and cheers from the
masses outside Milan’s gothic cathedral on one of the final
rallies of his ‘Tsunami Tour’.

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian defense company Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), at the center of a probe into alleged bribery to win an Indian helicopter tender, said on Tuesday it was ready to cooperate with Indian authorities to clarify the matter.

India’s defense ministry has threatened Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland with cancellation of a 560 million euro ($750 million) deal for 12 helicopters unless it can give assurances that no bribes were paid in the deal.

MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Corruption probes at three major
companies have hurt corporate Italy’s image with investors and
revived memories, just a week before an election, of the
scandals that devastated Italian politics in the 1990s.

Defence firm Finmeccanica, oil group Eni
and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank
and Italy’s third largest, all face judicial probes into crimes
ranging from bribing foreign officials to accounting fraud.

MILAN/SIENA, Feb 1 (Reuters) – The charitable foundation
that controls Italy’s scandal-hit Monte dei Paschi
bank took on excessive debt and entered into risky derivative
trades with the tacit consent of the Treasury, sources with
direct knowledge of the situation said.

Not-for-profit foundations like Monte dei Paschi’s are major
stakeholders in all of Italy’s main banks and are meant to use
their dividends for social and cultural projects.

MILAN/SIENA, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Alessandro Profumo went to
Monte dei Paschi to stage a financial turnaround; now one of
Italy’s most renowned bankers must also drag the 540-year-old
institution out of a legal and political mire.

Profumo faces the toughest challenge of his long career as
he tries to shake off the legacy of heavy losses on derivatives
trading under previous managers at Italy’s third-largest bank,
as well as suspicions of bribery during a 2007 takeover deal.

MILAN, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Italy’s troubled Monte dei Paschi
bank said on Monday it had no evidence of bribery in a
2007 takeover now under scrutiny over alleged corruption, but
acknowledged accounting irregularities under previous management
over derivatives trades.

Fabrizio Viola, appointed as chief executive last year after
a clean-out of Monte dei Paschi’s old management, said the bank
had used complex refinancing deals to hide losses, leaving it
dangerously exposed to interest rates swings.