Assicurazioni Generali, the Italian insurance group, has moved to deny rumours that it is to sell its private bank Banca Generali to Mediobanca, Reuters reports.

The online news service Bluerating had said that Cesare Geronzi, Generali’s chairman, was keen to sell Banca Generali and that Milan-headquartered Mediobanca was the ideal buyer.

Generali’s reponse was that the claims were “completely baseless”, according to Reuters, although with Geronzi having been chairman of Mediobanca up until April, he would certainly be well placed to assess the validity of such a bid from the investment bank.