SIENA: Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Tuesday it was looking to speed up a plan to sell bad loans and could possibly even raise its current target of selling 5.5 billion euros ($6 billion) of soured debts by 2018.

Speaking at a shareholder meeting, CEO Fabrizio Viola said bad loans were the biggest problem for the bank, which has 23.7 billion euros of soured debts - the highest proportion of total loans among Italian lenders.

Viola confirmed reports that the bank is at present seeking to sell a portfolio of non-performing loans worth 1.8 billion euros, after selling 1 billion euros of bad loans earlier this year.

Under its updated business plan, Monte dei Paschi must sell 2 billion euros of bad debts this year and the rest between 2016 and 2018.

Copyright Reuters, 2015