‘Italy must overhaul bureaucracy’: MPS chief

Alessandro Profumo said during a conference in Rome that the current system needs to be reformed to guarantee that banking processes can be completed "within 60 or 90 days". 

"We have to redesign the bureaucracy," he said during the Financial Times Future of Italy Summit 2013.

"In Italy, whenever you start a [financial] authorization process, you don't know when it's going to be completed. This is unmanageable." 

Profumo was appointed in April, two months after Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena received a €4 billion government bail-out. He added that reforming the troubled bank was a "positive process" as it forced rapid change.

"We're at the forefront of these changes [in the banking sector] because we're under a lot of pressure."

The bank reported a net loss of €3.17 billion in 2012, which fell to €380 million during the first six months of this year.

Reforms made include the closure of 400 branches over the past year and bringing in new management.

"If you need medicine, it's better to take it rapidly…in order to emerge from the painful process sooner," Profumo added.

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