Milan prosecutors have asked for four former Deutsche Bank employees and two former Nomura employees to serve prison time for their alleged role in a complex derivatives scandal at Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

The prosecutors also asked for the seizure of about €441m from Deutsche Bank and €445m from Nomura.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Nomura did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.

The two and a half year old trial has struck at the core of European finance and is related to allegations complex derivatives deals were undertaken at what was Italy’s third-largest bank by assets to mask losses from investors.

Prosecutors also asked for eight years of prison time for former Monte Paschi chairman Giuseppe Mussari and former chief executive Antonio Vigni. They asked for six years of jail time for former finance chief Gianluca Baldessari.

Italy took a 70 per cent stake in Monte Paschi in 2017 in a precautionary recapitalisation. The bank had failed to recover from losses incurred during Italy’s debt crisis and the triple dip recession that followed.

The three financial institutions and in total 13 former employees are standing trial over allegations of market manipulation, false accounting and misleading regulators.

The alleged crimes occurred between 2008 and 2012.