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As a wave of bank failures sweeps across the U.S., a few foreign banks are stepping into the auction ring.

Regulators will likely be most comfortable with those foreign banks that already have a commercial presence and proven track record in the U.S.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBV) is expected to be the first foreign company to buy a failed bank in this crisis; on Wednesday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. told the Madrid company it won the bid for Guaranty Financial Group Inc. (GFG) in Texas. Friday, the FDIC is expected to take Guaranty into receivership.

Other foreign banks with a U.S. presence interested in gobbling up failing U.S. banks are French bank BNP Paribas (BNPQY), through its San Francisco subsidiary Bank of the West; Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), through its Portland, Maine, subsidiary TD Bank; and Rabobank, the El Centro, Calif., subsidiary of Rabobank Group of Utrecht, Netherlands.

Any additional capital to help cushion the blow to the FDIC and the financial system from bank failures would be welcome. So far, 102 banks have failed in the two years since the financial crisis erupted, 77 this year and 25 in 2008. The failures are depleting the FDIC's insurance fund.

Moreover, "foreign banks have been good corporate citizens," said Peter Winter, a bank analyst with BMO Capital Markets - they haven't burdened the U.S. taxpayer with any bailout money.

In April, Bank of the West agreed to manage New Frontier Bank for the FDIC. The agency took the Colorado bank into receivership, but failed to find a buyer; Bank of the West's next step might well be a purchase.

"Bank of the West remains focused on our organic growth strategy and we do monitor acquisition opportunities, particularly FDIC-assisted transactions, that would augment our growth," Bank of the West spokesman Jim Cole said.

UnionBanCal Corp. in San Francisco, owned by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, is also expected to be among potential buyers. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment.

Some foreign banks have already made bids without winning. TD Bank tried to acquire BankUnited, which failed in May, and Rabobank bid for County Bank in Merced, Calif., which failed in February, though both bids were unsuccessful, according to documents posted on the FDIC's Web site.

TD is understood to have made another attempt, for Colonial Bank, which failed last week and was sold to BB&T Corp. (BBT) of Winston-Salem, N.C. A TD spokesman declined to comment about Colonial.

Like BBVA, TD has built a sizable U.S. presence. It acquired Banknorth Group Inc. of Portland, Maine, and Commerce Bancorp Inc., of Cherry Hill, N.J. Its chief executive, Ed Clark, said in a video message in June, posted on the bank's Web site, that any deal would likely be in East Coast cities. "For the moment," buying failed banks with FDIC assistance "are the kind of deals we're looking at," he said.

Radobank is planing to open branches and buy banks outside major metropolitan areas, like the central Californian coast, said Sean Dowdall, its executive director of marketing. It looked at several failed banks and bid for one. It will likely look at more, he said.

Having a strong U.S. presence is critical, investment bankers and lawyers said.

A buyer must have the staff to take over the failed bank and its branches over a single weekend.

And the FDIC may well be uncomfortable handing over a failed bank to a company with no regulatory history in the U.S., said Barry Taff, the head of mergers and acquisition practice with law firm Silver, Freedman & Taff LLP.

BBVA won Guaranty against competition from U.S. Bancorp (USB) and a group of private-equity firms including Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Oak Hill Capital Partners and billionaire Gerald J. Ford, a former bank CEO.

The most important consideration for the FDIC is to limit the cost to its insurance fund, with which it covers losses from the failed bank's troubled loans. BBVA's bid is believed to have been significantly better to the FDIC than the next best offer.

Most recent deals the FDIC struck with buyers of failed banks included loss-sharing agreements, and with such an agreement in place, a foreign bank has the opportunity to strike a deal with virtually no risk, said Taff, who advised on 11 failed bank deals in this crisis.

-By Matthias Rieker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2471; matthias.rieker@dowjones.com