Merrill Lynch's Italy chief plays down talk of UniCredit job-sources

MILAN (Reuters) - The head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Italy, tipped as a leading candidate to become chief executive at UniCredit, told an internal meeting on Monday he is happy with his current job, two sources close to the matter said.

"I am fine where I am," Marco Morelli said, according to one of the sources.

UniCredit CEO Federico Ghizzoni agreed to step down on May 24 when a successor is found. He had been facing growing discontent among investors over the bank's poor share price performance, stretched capital base and profitability.

Since then the bank appears to have made little progress in finding a new chief and sources have reported disagreement among the board over the ideal candidate.

Chairman Giuseppe Vita said in a newspaper interview on Friday the bank would not appoint a new CEO before the end of July.

Other candidates tipped for the job of CEO include Frenchman Jean-Pierre Mustier, a former Societe Generale and UniCredit executive, the CEO of investment bank Mediobanca, Alberto Nagel, the head of Deutsche Bank in Italy Flavio Valeri and the chief of Credit Agricole's Italian unit Giampiero Maioli.

The CEO of UBS Sergio Ermotti, and the Swiss bank's investment banking boss Andrea Orcel have also been mentioned but several sources have said they are not interested.

(Reporting by Paola Arosio, editing by Silvia Aloisi)

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