ROME, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Eight Italian regions have hiredbanks to manage a round of bond buybacks for them, the treasurysaid on Tuesday, in a move aimed at giving indebted localadministrations more time to repay their loans.
The Italian state is providing cash-strapped regions withthe funds to repurchase the bonds from private investors.
It will then give the regions more time to pay back thefunds used to finance the buyback deals.
The regions of Abruzzo, Campania, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy,Marche, Piedmont and Puglia have hired Barclays, BNPParibas, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank to manage any offers to buy back their bonds.
Rome gave the regional governments, which mainly look afterhealthcare and also run transport services, permission torestructure their debt in this way earlier this year. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Isla Binnie; Editingby Hugh Lawson)