MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Carige has hired Boston Consulting Group to help it study ways to develop its business, including through a merger which remains the troubled lender’s main goal. Genoa-based Carige said in a statement on Wednesday it would continue to pursue a tie-up even after tax incentives for bank mergers expire at the end of the year. Loss-making Carige is controlled by Italy’s FITD depositor protection fund after being rescued by healthier peers back in 2019 at a cost of 700 million euros ($810 million). It has warned it needs another 400 million euros in capital by the third quarter of 2022. The FITD fund is struggling to find a buyer for the bank after rival Cassa Centrale Banca earlier this year walked away from a potential acquisition. ($1 = 0.8639 euros) Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia; editing by Valentina Za Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.