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The verdict, read in court on Friday by lead judge Angela Scalise, overturned a previous ruling in the case and cancelled seizures previously imposed on Deutsche Bank and Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR) Inc for 64.9 million and 88 million euros, respectively.
The appeals court judges ruled there was no case to answer.
Monte dei Paschi had reached a settlement with the court over the case in 2016 at a cost of 10.6 million euros ($11.2 million).
The case centred on two complex derivatives transactions — known as Alexandria and Santorini — that Nomura and Deutsche Bank arranged for Monte dei Paschi in 2009.
Prosecutors said the deals helped Monte dei Paschi, which was founded in 1472 and is Italy’s fourth biggest lender, hide more than 2 billion euros of losses racked up after the costly acquisition of a smaller rival in 2008.
The scandal, together with more losses suffered by Monte dei Paschi during the euro zone debt crisis, threatened to destabilise Italy’s financial industry and forced the Siena-based lender to seek an 8 billion euro bailout in 2017 which handed the state a 64% stake.
The three banks and 13 defendants faced allegations of false accounting and market manipulation for events that took place between 2008 and 2012.
In the initial trial in 2019 a Milan court convicted all the 13 defendants from the three banks.
All defendants have always denied any wrongdoing and none of them was expected to serve time in jail before the lengthy appeals process was exhausted.
($1 = 0.9451 euros)
