Trading in Unicredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena halted.

Earlier in the session, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena´s new chief, Marco Morelli, had disclosed some of the details of the bank´s restructuring plans, albeit alongside a third quarterloss of €1.15bn after.

The red ink was wholly accounted for by €1.3bn set aside for provisions to cover bad loans.

As a result, the lender´s common equity Tier 1 ratio slipped from 12% at the end of 2015 to 11.5%.

Included in the bank´s restructuring was a voluntary debt swap which was to include all of its €5bn-worth of institutional and retail bond holders.

Permission for the swap was still pending, Morelli said.

The announcements saw stock in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena swing violently between gains of 27% and losses of 23% before trading was halted.

Over the previous week, the shares had snapped higher by almost 60%.

Its lower Tier 2 notes maturing on April 2020 on the other hand had risen by six cents to 80 cents on the dollar.

As of 1147 BST stock in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was lower by 4.90% to €0.33 after trading had resumed.