Mediobanca CEO Says Governments Are Hampering Bank Consolidation

Mediobanca SpA Chief Executive Officer Alberto Nagel said that national governments are an obstacle to creating bigger banks in the European Union.

“I don’t think it’s going to help the consolidation” of the financial industry in the bloc, Nagel said Friday on Bloomberg TV, referring to efforts to slow or even prevent banking takeovers in Germany, Italy and Spain. That level of obstruction is a “new factor,” he said.

Several banks including Italy’s UniCredit SpA and Spain’s BBVA SA have launched attempts to buy rivals, only to meet with sometimes bitter opposition from Berlin, Rome and Madrid. Mediobanca itself is ...