Paris-listed Crédit Agricole said it has entered exclusive talks with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria for the sale of Crédit Uruguay Banco, ending speculation which linked up to six banks with the deal.

Crédit Agricole first announced that it had begun looking for a buyer in October of last year, as part of a drive to refocus its operations on Europe and the Mediterranean area. At that time reports suggested that along with BBVA, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Nuevo Banco Comercial and two unidentified foreign banks without Uruguayan operations were eyeing the unit.

Crédit Uruguay Banco, which has a private banking arm, has 36 branches and close to 500 employees. With $1 billion in total assets, it is the third-largest private sector bank in Uruguay.

The proposed sale adds Crédit Agricole to a growing list of firms which have moved to sell-off assets following the financial crisis – in some cases to simply to shore up their balance sheets, and in others to satisfy regulatory requirements. Germany’s Commerzbank, for instance, sold UK private bank Kleinwort Benson as part of the conditions for it receiving public aid under European Union rules.