BNP Paribas SA, France's second-biggest bank, is in discussions to buy a stake in a Chinese consumer bank, following competitors such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in seeking to expand in the world's most populous nation.

"We're eager to catch a part of this market and we want to have a stake, but on a rather limited basis to start with," BNP Paribas Chief Executive Officer Baudouin Prot said in an interview at the bank's New York offices on Wednesday. "We're in talks."

The Paris-based bank would finance any purchase by tapping part of the 2 billion euros (US$2.5 billion) a year it has earmarked for purchases, Prot said. He declined to identify the Chinese bank.

Banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC Holdings Plc are rushing into an economy that's growing at twice the pace of the United States and where household savings total US$1.65 trillion. US and European banks have committed more than US$8 billion buying stakes in Chinese lenders as the country opens up the industry.

A Goldman Sachs Group Inc fund, Allianz AG and American Express Co plan to buy 10 per cent of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's biggest bank, for about US$3.1 billion, people involved in the deal said. Royal Bank, Merrill Lynch & Co and the Li Ka-shing Foundation said last month they will pay US$3.1 billion for 10 per cent of Bank of China.

London-based HSBC, the world's second-largest bank by market value, last year agreed to pay US$1.75 billion for almost 20 per cent of China's Bank of Communications Co. BNP Paribas, which opened its first Chinese business in 1860, already does investment banking in the country through its Shanghai-based BNP Paribas (China) Ltd unit.

Source: China Daily