Intesa SanPaolo posts 5.2 billion euro loss

(Photo: Ivana Vuksa)

This widened the quarterly loss from 83 million euros last year, the news agency AP reports.

The balance sheet cleanup comes as the European Central Bank starts a review of the region's banks to identify weak spots in their finances and, if needed, request fixes.

Similar results were achieved by Intesa's local competitor UniCredit, the largest Italian bank in the value of assets, which registered a net loss of as much as 15 billlion euro in the Q4 2013, one of the biggest losses ever recorded by a European bank.

Intesa Sanpaolo has unveiled its strategic plan for the period 2014-2017, according to which it plans to turn a net profit of 4.5 billion euro in 2017.