In another sign of foreign distrust in Argentine capital markets, a major European Bank is pulling out of local operations and selling its retail branches to a national bank.
Banco Santander Rio, Argentina’s third largest bank by market cap, has agreed Friday to buy the local retail operations of BNP Paribas. BRIO AR incorporates more than 30,000 individual clients, 900 corporate clients, a network of 17 branches, a loan portfolio of 300 MM of Argentine pesos (ARS) and 484 MM ARS in deposits as of June 30th. The acquired branches represent an addition of 20% to the existing branches of BRIO.
The deal requires the approval of the Argentine central bank.
On a brighter note, Argentina’s largest bank by market cap, Banco Macro, was upgraded this week by JP Morgan from “neutral” to “overweight”, and its stock surged.
The bank has a strong presence in the interior provinces of the country, where it  administers  payroll services for the governments of Misiones, Salta, Jujuy and Tucuman.
It has a private sector branch network with 427 branches (including Nuevo Banco Bisel) spread throughout Argentina.
For those cautious of gov’t intervention in banks, it must be noted that the Argentine government, through its social security agency “Anses”, owns 26.6% of the shares of BMA AR as of May 2009.