Five potential bidders, amongst them US Bancorp and Fifth Third Bancorp. are competing for the Chicago IL branches of Citizens Financial Group. The said bidding was confirmed by several people with knowledge of the matter.

Other banks indicating interest are Wintrust Financial Corp, PrivateBancorp Inc and FirstMerit Corp according to the anonymous sources, who sought not to be identified as the information is still deemed private. Citizens is the US unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and is based out of Providence, RI. The projected price for the 105 branches is at USD500 million.

RBS had purchased Citizens back in 1988 announced last February it would be selling off 25% of the US bank to meet the more stringent capital requirements. The Chicago sale is a small operation compared to the presence of the bank in the Northeastern United States. The sale would include USD6 billion in deposits and loans worth USD2.4 biilion. 

Advising Citizens is Bank of America Corp. Spokesmen for the participating banks all declined to provide a comment on the said bidding for the bank branches.