Parlezvous Francais? - The Beat - BNP Paribas acquires United California Bank - Brief Article

New Mexico Business Journal, Jan-Feb, 2002

Bank of the West, which breezed into town last year by acquiring a number of branches that First Security Bank was obliged to shed when it was acquired by Wells Fargo, just got bigger, at least in California. Actually BancWest Corporation's parent, BNP Paribas, got bigger. Seems that Paribas is buying United California Bank for $2.4 billion in cash and merging it with Bank of the West, thus doubling the latter's presence in the Golden State.

United California, by the way was owned by UFJ Holdings, headquartered in Tokyo. Once all of this comes together, Bank of the West will have more than 1.5 million customers and more than 350 branches in seven western states, Guam and Saipan. All of this is getting confusing, we know, but that's the way banking is these days. There's more: BancWest, which is also the parent company of First Hawaiian Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the aforementioned Paribas, which is France's No. 1 bank and among the 10 largest banks in the world, based on asset size. Which means Fr ance now has a reasonable presence in New Mexico. Voila!