LISBON, June 17 (Reuters) - Santander Totta, the Portugueseoffshoot of Spain's Santander,is eyeing the localcommercial loan books of Barclays and BBVA,chief executive Antonio Vieira Monteiro told Reuters on Tuesday.
"We are studying ... the commercial portfolio, the retailnetwork we are not interested in," Monteiro told Reuters,referring to BBVA's Portuguese unit. "We are looking and in theend we'll see if we are doing a proposal or not."
Monteiro would not say when he would take a decision on anybid but said his bank is interested in the similar assets heldby Barclays, which is shrinking its European operationsto concentrated on its core UK business. Barclays and BBVA bothdeclined to comment.
Santander Totta is the third largest privately-owned bank inPortugal by assets.
Monteiro also said Santander Totta will take some of the 400billion euros ($544.60 billion) the European Central Bank hasset aside for a four-year low-cost funding scheme to encouragebanks to lend to the real economy.
"I don't know (how much), I will take what I need," he said. "I will do the additional lending, yes, but what I am not doingis additional lending to bad companies, this is out of thequestion."
Monteiro hopes to grow Santander Totta's return on equity to12 to 16 percent by 2016, from last year's 5.1 percent, asearnings rise to 400 million euros from last year's 102 millioneuros.
This year's figures will be helped by the release of a "lotof" the provisions the bank has already set aside for loanlosses, since it had received more money back from strugglingcustomers than expected, Monteiro said. ($1 = 0.7345 Euros) (Reporting By Laura Noonan, additional reporting by SteveSlater in London)