Bank of NY Mellon expects more acquisitions

BOSTON (Reuters) - BNY Mellon Wealth Management plans to acquire more wealth managers as it expands its business in the United States, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday.

Most clients of Bank of New York Mellon Corp's (BK.N) private bank are based on the U.S. East or West Coasts now, so expanding into the Midwest, Texas, and states like Arizona present a good growth opportunity over the next few years, the unit's CEO, David Lamere, said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

Building new businesses from scratch is much harder than acquiring good ones, Lamere said. Mellon historically focused on acquiring wealth managers who oversee around $1 billion of assets or less. But as a bigger company, acquiring larger wealth managers -- typically those responsible for multiple billions of dollars under management -- makes sense, Lamere said.

The private bank is developing a plan to expand in Europe and Asia as well, but those businesses may take more time to grow, Lamere said.

The number of businesses that the company acquires will depend on valuations, Lamere said. It often passes on deals because the prices are too high. Acquiring a firm with the right people is key as well, he added.

Bank of New York Co completed the acquisition of Mellon Financial Corp in July.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins, additional reporting by Toni Clarke and Muralikumar Anantharaman, editing by Jeffrey Benkoe/Tim Dobbyn)