Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) has emerged as the winning bidder to take over Texan lender Guaranty Financial Group, according to reports.
The deal will make BBVA the second Spanish bank to buy a US lender this year, after Banco Santander bought Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp in late January.
 
Guaranty, which ran into trouble when the US housing market collapsed in late 2007, had $14 billion in assets as of 30 June this year.
 
Blackstone Group, Flexpoint, US Bancorp and Carlyle Group were among those also considering bids for Guaranty.
 
BBVA already has a strong presence in the south of the US, ranking as the third-largest bank by assets in Alabama and the fourth in Texas. Of a total 583 US branches, 100 are in Texas. The bank also has a firm foothold in California, with around 60 branches in the state.
 
In 2007, BBVA acquired Alabama-based Compass Bancshares for $9.6 billion, recently rebranding its branches as BBVA Compass. It also bid last week for Colonial Bank, also based in Alabama, which had assets of $25 billion, though it was not ultimately successful.
 
It is thought that Guaranty customers may become BBVA Compass customers as early as this Saturday.
 
With $750 billion in assets, BBVA is SpainÔÇÖs second-largest bank behind Santander. It is also the largest bank in Mexico.
 
It employs 112,000 people and has 47 million customers in more than 30 countries around the world.
 
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