Implementing Italy bank decree will be long and complicated: PM Gentiloni

[December 29, 2016]  ROME (Reuters) - Implementing an emergency decree to prop up Italy's struggling banks will be a long and complicated process, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Thursday.

Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni addresses a news conference during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

The government approved a decree last week to bail out its third-largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena and pledged to protect the savings of around 40,000 retail investors.

"Putting this into practice will be long and complicated, we aren't hiding that, but it is a strategic and fundamental decision," Gentiloni told a news conference.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, writing by Isla Binnie)

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