The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition Bank of Nova Scotia is mulling a sale of its Puerto Rican banking unit valued at about $600-million.
A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says Scotiabank is in the early stages of exploring strategic options for Scotiabank de Puerto Rico that could include selling it to a private-equity firm or other lender in the region.
Scotiabank has just begun deliberating its future in Puerto Rico and could still decide to keep the unit. The island's volatile economy could make finding a buyer for the franchise difficult.
Puerto Rico is among the smallest and most troubled U.S. banking markets. Scotiabank executives also have concerns about upheaval in Puerto Rico's banking market.
American regulators have told San Juan-based Doral Financial that it must increase capital to levels decreed by a 2012 consent order or it must prepare to break up or sell, the company said on Oct. 1.
Scotiabank, present in Puerto Rico for more than 100 years, more than doubled its assets there by acquiring the loans and deposits of the failed R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico in 2010.
Scotiabank de Puerto Rico had 35 branches and earned about $11-million in the first six months of 2014.
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