Monte dei Paschi kicks off new organisational set-up before staff exits

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian state-owned bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena will kick off on Monday a new organisational set-up as it strives to cope with losing roughly a fifth of its employees in two days' time, unions said.

In a joint statement, Italian banking unions complained they had not been able to reach an agreement with the bank over the new work organisation prior to its launching and would continue to seek to discuss arrangements.

Monte dei Paschi this month raised 2.5 billion euros ($2.60 billion) in cash, braving stormy markets with a new share issue to be able to lay off staff and boost profits thanks to lower costs.

As of Dec. 1, the Tuscan bank will lose a total of 4,125 employees who opted to take advantage of a generous early retirement scheme.

($1 = 0.9626 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing Federico Maccioni)