Brazil's largest private-sector bank, Itau Unibanco (ITUB, ITUB4.BR, ITUB3.BR) is considering acquisitions in the region as it aims to become Latin America's "global bank" in the next few years, a top bank executive said in an interview.
"We aspire to be considered the global bank of Latin America by 2020," said Ricardo Marino, the vice-president responsible for Itau's operations in the region. "We are seeking a larger role and greater scale, which we intend to achieve as the market presents more acquisition and merger opportunities."
With a local presence in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, Itau sees Colombia, Peru and Mexico, where it already has a credit-card operation, as its next frontiers. In the future, the bank could even consider setting foot in the U.S., Mr. Marino said.
The bank also has a regional presence through its investment-banking arm, Itau BBA, which last month officially started corporate-banking operations in Colombia, aiming to provide services for businesses in areas such as mining, energy, oil and infrastructure.
"Our focus today is Brazil and Latin America. But, in the future, we could also analyze the U.S, where the subprime crisis is being resolved" Mr. Marino said. He said an acquisition in Europe is completely outside Itau's plans.
In fact, earlier this year, Itau sold an 18.87% stake in Portuguese bank BPI, or Banco Portugues de Investimento, as part of its strategy of focusing on the fast-expanding Latin American markets. The move reduced its risk exposure, as banks in the Iberian Peninsula were hit hard by the euro-zone debt crisis.
Itau, which started its first regional operation outside Brazil from scratch in Argentina, doesn't want to replicate that experience in other Latin American countries, where banking activity is often concentrated in the hands of a few players, the executive said.
However, Mr. Marino added, there is a scarcity of good targets available in the region. "There aren't banks for sale in Latin America and many are controlled by families," he said.
Even though Itau is looking for opportunities to extend its reach in Latin America, Mr. Marino said there are no deals in the pipeline at the moment.
As of September, excluding Brazil, Itau had 253 branches in Latin America with assets of 37.5 billion Brazilian reais ($18.4 billion). While small compared with Brazil, where assets exceed BRL922 billion and the number of branches is close to 4,000, regional growth has accelerated, Mr. Marino said, adding there is an increase in intraregional businesses as well larger demand by customers traveling in Latin America.
Itau isn't the only Brazilian bank seeking to expand its retail operations to neighboring countries. State-run Banco do Brasil (BDORY, BBAS3.BR) has also been looking for acquisitions in countries such as Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Chile. Banco do Brasil kicked off a concerted effort to expand into retail banking overseas in 2010 with the acquisition of a majority stake in Argentina's Banco Patagonia S.A. In 2011, it bought tiny Florida-based Eurobank for $6 million.
Itau started its regional retail expansion in 1994 with the foundation of Itau Argentina. In 2006, it signed an agreement to acquire BankBoston in Brazil and for the exclusive rights to acquire that bank's existing operations in Chile and Uruguay.
"Today there are many American, Chinese and Spanish banks, but there isn't one bank that is recognized as truly Latin American and we want to occupy that place," Mr. Marino said.
Write to Luciana Magalhaes at luciana.magalhaes@dowjones.com
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