By Stefano Bernabei
ROME (Reuters) - Executives from Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MI:BMPS), identified as the weakest bank in a Europe-wide review, will discuss the lender's plan to boost its finances with the European Central Bank on Thursday, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Monte dei Paschi Chairman Alessandro Profumo and CEO Fabrizio Viola hope the ECB will lower capital demands for the Tuscan lender if it books around 3 billion euros (2.3 billion pounds) in additional writedowns for bad loans in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Monte dei Paschi said last week the ECB had asked it to raise its core capital level to 14.3 percent as part of new, tougher requirements for riskier lenders to bolster their financial strength. That compares with a level of 12.8 percent the bank had at the end of September 2014.
The bank has until Friday to reply to the request, which it has said is preliminary and subject to changes.
As part of last year's health check of euro zone lenders, details of which were published in October, the ECB combed Monte dei Paschi's loan book and called for gross writedowns of 4.2 billion euros.
The bank said in its third-quarter results it had booked writedowns for 1.2 billion euros and would consider whether to take a further hit in the fourth quarter. Sources close to the situation have told Reuters that if the bank does book the remaining 3 billion euros in loan loss charges as requested by the ECB, its capital target would be lowered accordingly.
There was no immediate comment from the ECB in Frankfurt.
The ECB has decided to assign specific capital requirements to individual banks which in the case of most Italian lenders will be much higher than those set by the industry's Basel III rules, according to Italian press reports.
Italy's bank sector fared the worst in the ECB's assessment, laying bare the extent of the economic crisis in the euro zone's third biggest economy. Nine Italian lenders failed the tests although only Monte dei Paschi and Carige (MI:CRGI) still have a capital shortfall to fill.
The two banks have already announced plans for a 2.5 billion euro and a 700 million euro capital increase respectively.
The capital requests signal steps by the ECB to tighten its grip as the euro zone's most powerful banking supervisor.
The Il Sole 24 ore newspaper said the new requirements would set an average common equity Tier 1 ratio -- or core capital -- floor for the 15 Italian banks under ECB watch of 10.5 percent, compared with a general Basel III minimum requirement of 7 percent.