Monte Paschi says bad debt plan has preliminary EU nod

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian state-owned bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has received a preliminary green light from European Union competition authorities for a long-awaited bad debt clean-up plan. Italy had been in talks for months with the European Commission over ways to rid Monte dei Paschi of most of its problem loans and allow an eventual re-privatisation of the lender, which was rescued in 2017 in an 8 billion euro bailout.Confirming what a source had told Reuters earlier on Friday,..