How JPMorgan could not save Italy's 'problem child' bank

London

ON THE morning of July 29, former Italian Industry Minister Corrado Passera was travelling in a high-speed train towards the medieval city of Siena, racing to meet the directors of the world's oldest bank to present them with a rescue plan.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy's third-largest lender, was destined to be wound down within months unless it could raise billions of euros and pull itself out of a swamp of bad loans that threatened to swallow up its five centuries of banking.