The owner of First Hawaiian Bank could seek as much as $5 billion in an initial public offering of the state’s largest financial institution, Reuters reported Wednesday.

That amount would trump the $4.3 billion that Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc. is proposing to pay for Hawaiian Electric Industries, the largest utility in Hawaii.

French banking giant BNP Paribas said last month that it is contemplating a sale of First Hawaiian as a way to generate more capital and satisfy a rising regulatory requirement to have a higher ratio of capital to assets. Among the options being considered is an initial public offering, First Hawaiian said.

BNP Paribas has chosen Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch as coordinators for the bank’s move, three sources close to the matter told Reuters. One of the sources said BNP Paribas was estimating the value of First Hawaiian at between $4 billion and $5 billion.

That would value the bank about double the market capitalization of Bank of Hawaii, the state’s second-largest bank. Bank of Hawaii, which had $15.2 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, had a market cap of $2.4 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday. Bank of Hawaii has 65 branches in the state.

First Hawaiian, which had $18.9 billion in assets as of the end of September, has delayed the voluntary release of its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings while the regulatory process plays out. The bank has 57 branches in Hawaii.

BNP acquired 45 percent ownership of First Hawaiian in 1998 as part of a merger with San Francisco-based Bank of the West in 1998, and then bought the balance in 2001.