France's largest bank is considering acquisitions in Germany, a senior executive has said.

BNP Paribas is looking at piecemeal acquisitions in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, the head of the French group’s German operations is quoted as saying.

The comments confirm what this publication has understood for some time about BNP Paribas’ desire to pursue opportunities in Germany. With Deutsche Bank battling to restore its fortunes, and Commerzbank recovering from its bailout phase a decade ago, the market is deemed ripe for development. Foreign players in the market include HSBC (HSBC Trinkaus) and ABN AMRO (Bethmann Bank AG), and there is a large group of small private banking houses, many of them dating back centuries. (For a profile by this news service of the German market, see here.)

Reuters carried comments from Lutz Diederichs. “Our strategic plan is exclusively based on organic growth,” Diederichs told journalists in Frankfurt.

“When I say that we keep are eyes open that means that we will go for small acquisitions only, not big ones,” he was quoted as saying.

The idea of such acquisitions also fits with a general trend towards consolidation in parts of the European private banking space, given the headwinds of compliance costs, rising client expectations and the pressures of low or even negative interest rates and their impact on margins.