Canadian banks are accelerating plans to expand their retail business in the United States.

The Royal Bank intends to open as many as 60 new branches in the southeastern states under its RBC Centura brand over the next two years, while BMO plans to add 50 branches to its Harris Bank unit in Illinois, a financial conference arranged by Scotia Capital heard Tuesday.

“RBC Centura provides a solid foundation for growth in retail and business banking in the fast-growing southeastern U.S., as well as a niche business lines across the U.S.,” Royal chief executive Gordon Nixon said.

RBC Centura, based in North Carolina, now has 247 branches in five southeastern states. Twenty-five to 30 branches are expected to open in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida next year, and 20 to 30 openings are slated for 2005, Nixon said.

He noted that American operations provided 27% of RBC’s revenue in the first nine months of the current financial year, up from seven% in 2000.

Bank of Montreal said it is on the lookout for more U.S. acquisitions.

At its Chicago-based Harris Bank, “our growth plan calls for expanding our existing 145-branch distribution network by an additional 50 branches or more,” said Bill Downe, chief executive of BMO Nesbitt Burns, the brokerage unit of Bank of Montreal.

“We will open new branches and we are pursuing some small one- and two-unit banks,” he said.

He said Harris Bank has opened seven new branches this year, and plans 10 openings next year.

At the same conference, National Bank CEO, Real Raymond, suggested that it hopes to see much of its domestic growth outside of Quebec through partnerships with firms such as Investors Group.

Raymond said that National Bank launched banking products through the IG distribution network in June. He said that the launch has gone very well so far, and that he expects similar relationships to fuel the bank’s future growth outside of Quebec.

Unlike the bigger banks, Raymond said that National does not intend to follow up its purchase of Putnam Lovell in the U.S. with more brokerage boutique acquisitions.

He said that National won’t look at buying more M&A boutiques until the markets turn around convincingly, if at all.