French bank BNP Paribas' chief executive Baudouin Prot said Monday he was still looking for acquisitions in the western United States, a main focus of the group's expansion plans.

Prot said that some 7,500 banks in the United States are being reduced by about 500 each year through mergers or acquisitions. " It would be most unusual if there weren't one or two for BNP," he said.

Besides BNP, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN Amro have a " significant" presence in the United States, he said, adding that BNP is the only one active in western states.

He also said that BNP benefits both from the region's high birthrates and immigration levels, which has similar growth rates as in developing countries, and the security of a stable US banking system as well.

BNP entered the western US banking sector in 1979, with the purchase of BankWest, and has since then acquired 13 others in the region.

Source: Xinhua