Canada’s Bank of Montreal (BMO) is reportedly mulling over the possibility of acquiring BNP Paribas’ American banking business.
BMO has held initial talks with the French lender to acquire its Bank of the West unit, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
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Earlier, it was reported that BNP is in talks with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to exit the US retail banking market.
The business for sale had a book value of nearly $13.7bn as of 30 September 2021, the report said citing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s data.
Slow approval from the US authorities could complicate the talks, the people said adding that the talks are ongoing and there’s no guarantee that the deal will materialise.
Other suitors such as TD Bank, PNC Financial Services Group, Royal Bank of Canada and KeyCorp could also come forward to bid for the unit.
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By GlobalDataBNP Paribas had bought Bank of the West in 1979 and later merged it with the French Bank of California (FBC). It has been facing tough competition from its US peers.
As of 30 September 2021, the lender, which is BNP Paribas’ key business outside Europe, had $105bn in assets with 537 retail banking outlets in the US’ West and Midwest states.
Earlier, Bank Leumi Le-Israel announced plans to sell its US arm to Valley National Bancorp for $1.14bn.
Around that same time, Japan’s MUFG decided to pull the plug on its US retail banking business with an $8bn US Bancorp deal.
