Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A., known as BMPS or just MPS, is an Italian bank. Tracing its history to a mount of piety founded in 1472 and established in its present form in 1624, it is the world's oldest bank, and the fifth largest Italian commercial and retail bank. In 1995, the bank was transformed from a statutory corporation to a limited company called Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena was created to continue the charitable functions of the bank and to be, until the bailout in 2013, its largest single shareholder. According to research by Mediobanca and a press release issued by Banco BPM, Banco BPM overtook BMPS as the third largest commercial banking group in Italy on 31 December 2016, after Banco BPM's formal formation on 1 January 2017. In 2016–17, BMPS was struggling to avoid a collapse, and it was bailed out again by the Italian government in July 2017. In 2020, BMPS had approximately 1,400 branches, 21,000 employees and 3.9 million customers in Italy, as well as branches and businesses abroad. A subsidiary, MPS Capital Services, handles corporate and investment banking. Wikipedia