BNP Paribas sells Bank of the West

BNP Paribas sells its US subsidiary Bank of the West to Canadian BMO.

This fits into the 'Go big or go home' pattern (listen to episode 3 of the Finrestra podcast): banks leave non-core markets if they cannot reach a critical scale.

BNP Paribas gets about 14 billion euro from the sale. What can the French giant do with this cash? Jan speculates about an acquisition of Societe Generale or UniCredit. This would generate economies of scale in France and Italy, BNPP's core markets.

Because 14 billion only buys half of these banks, BNP Paribas could sell part of their activities. For example, sell SocGen's Rosbank or UniCredit's German retail activities.

What do you think? Let me know on Twitter (@janmusschoot) or mail (jan.musschoot@finrestra.com) :)

P.S.: Our short profile of BNP Paribas mentioned in the podcast is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi-5sRW_guI