MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Veneto Banca posted on Monday a 1.5 billion euro (1.28 billion pounds) loss for 2016 and said it had lost deposits in March hit by uncertainty over a state bailout it has requested together with fellow regional bank Popolare di Vicenza.
To prop up its liquidity, Veneto Banca said it would ask the state to guarantee a new bond issue for up to 1.4 billion euros, after tapping the liquidity support scheme for 3.5 billion euros in February.
Veneto Banca said it had written down doubtful loans for 1.3 billion euros last year following a recently concluded on-site audit by European Central Bank supervisors which forced it to class more loans as bad and raise coverage levels.
It warned it could book more loan loss provisions this year as it applied the ECB's guidelines on problematic loans.
