3Q06 RESULTS

The Board of Directors of Banca MPS has approved today the Group results at 30 September 2006.

MPS Group: results of the first nine months 2006

Net profit of Euro 687.5 million ( 19.8%)

• Steady structural growth in the key revenue components
• Net interest income 4.9%
• Net banking and insurance income 5.1%
• Operating costs well under control ( 0.7%) despite non-recurring items and new branch openings during the year:
• Euro 44 million (18 million in the third quarter alone) in costs for early retirement incentives
• 27 new branches and 7 new Private Centres during the year
• 620 new hires of young personnel during the year. An additional 420 employees are expected to exit by year-end, against 443 who have already exited
• Lower cost-income ratio: 60.7% (59.5% excluding charges related to early retirement incentives) down from 64.8% at year-end
• Considerable increase in the operating result ( 13.5%) and in the pre-tax profit ( 25.2%)
• Substantial increase in operating volumes
• Loans: 12.1%
• Direct deposits: 5.6%
• Consum.it loans: 28.5%
• MPS Leasing and Factoring loans: 6.7%
• MPS Banca per l`Impresa placements: 14.6%
• Reinforcement of the sales force and increase in customer base
• Back office-front office ratio of the network from 42% (at year-end 2005) to 36%
• 42 new financial promoters during the year
• 43,000 new customers during the year, 17,000 in the third quarter
• Sizeable decrease (-14.4% during the year) of total net deteriorated loans
• Improvement of the capital ratios: Tier 1 at 6.8% vs. 6.51% (year-end 2005)
• Active implementation of the Business Plan initiatives and positive outlook about key revenue elements of the fourth quarter