According to insiders, the major French bank BNP Paribas has its eyes on Dutch competitor ABN Amro.

The French recently wanted to talk to the Dutch government about a possible takeover of the bank, which has been nationalized since the financial crisis, wrote the Bloomberg news agency on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

However, the government is currently not interested in a complete sale.

Instead, she might consider selling shares in the market to make money while retaining some control over the financial institution.

In addition, other banks have already expressed an interest in ABN Amro.

Whether there will be official offers has not yet been decided.

Neither BNP Paribas nor ABN Amro wanted to comment to Bloomberg.

ABN Amro's shares jumped 17 percent on the news, while BNP Paribas' shares expanded their daily gain to around 3 percent.

In Frankfurt, the shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank rose.

In recent years, Commerzbank in particular has repeatedly been mentioned as a possible target in the course of European industry consolidation.