"We're confident this will be the final solution for Carige's problems," FITD's Salvatore Maccarone said.

Italian banks will invest up to 500-600 million euros into Carige through the FITD fund as part of a 900 million euro ($1 billion) rescue plan, sources have said.

The plan hinges on a cooperative lender outside the FITD fund - Cassa Centrale Banca (CCB) - also taking part in the recapitalisation to the tune of about 70 million euros and agreeing to buy back the fund's shares in Carige at a later stage to gain a majority stake.