Colonial National Bank and Insurance may have a new owner by the end of this year.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is now in discussions with Bank of South Pacific of Papua New Guinea regarding the potential sale of Commonwealth Bank's banking and insurance businesses in Fiji.

Bank of South Pacific has approached Commonwealth Bank regarding its regional expansion goals and therefore its interest in acquiring National Bank of Fiji trading as Colonial National Bank and Colonial Fiji Life Limited.

A consequence of these discussions is that Bank of South Pacific has made an indicative non-binding offer and requested a period of exclusive due diligence.

It has been confirmed that Commonwealth Bank Board of Directors in Sydney has considered the terms of the offer and agreed to further discussions and the commencement of the due diligence.

Bank of South Pacific is PNG's largest retail and commercial bank with 35 branches. It also has regional representation in Niue, Solomon Islands and operates two branches in Fiji under a full banking license.

BSP currently holds in excess of 50 percent of market share in both deposits and loans in PNG and as at 31st December last year held total assets of 3.2 billion Australian dollars.