Granting of banking licence to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (26 September 2000) that the Monetary Authority has granted a banking licence to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (BMPS) under the Banking Ordinance. This grant of banking licence took effect on 25 September 2000.

BMPS is the lead bank of an Italian banking group operating across the entire Italian territory and in the principal international centres such as New York, London, Frankfurt and Singapore. BMPS ranked 5^th among banks in Italy and 101^st globally in terms of tier one capital as at 31 December 1999.

The principal activities of the Hong Kong Branch of BMPS are the provision of syndicated lending, corporate lending, trading finance and treasury management.

With the granting of a banking licence to BMPS, the number of licensed banks in Hong Kong has increased to 154.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Thomas Chan, Senior Manager (Press), at 2878 1480 or
Caitlin Wong, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
26 September 2000