TURIN, Italy, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Italy's largest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo does not need a capital increase, its chief executive Corrado Passera said on Monday.  "We don't need it because we have already done it," Passera said on the sidelines of a conference. (Reporting by Gianni Montani, Writing by Michel Rose)  REUTERS 14:49 24-10-11

ROME (Dow Jones)--Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) has no plans to raise further equity capital in the wake of the euro-zone sovereign-debt crisis and its planned solutions, the chief executive of Italy's largest bank by domestic assets said Monday, MF-Dow Jones reported.
Corrado Passera said Intesa Sanpaolo had already raised EUR5 billion in fresh capital earlier this year to meet tough new regulatory requirements ahead of time.
"We did our capital hike ahead of time, we did what we had to do, our core Tier 1 capital ratio is over 10%, we assured liquidity so we could help clients," Passera told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Turin.
He emphasized that distinctions should be drawn between "banks that did their jobs well and those that didn't."
 In contrast to their French and German rivals, Italian banks have very low exposure to peripheral euro-zone debt, Passera said, adding most Italian banks also accepted the challenge of selling new shares earlier this year.
Passera criticized the European Union's handling of the Greek debt crisis as unsatisfactory and urged clarity be established very soon.
"We have to be careful about trying to cure sovereign debt by going after its effects and not its causes," he said.
By Alberto Chimenti of MF-Dow Jones and Christopher Emsden, Dow Jones Newswires;
24-10-11 1344GMT  Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.