BB&T Corp. said this week that it is willing to discuss what it called a "merger of equals," according to published reports.

Officials with BB&T, headquartered in Winston-Salem and the fifth-largest bank in the southeastern U.S., said no merger discussions are currently taking place. Chief Executive Officer John Allison said there are about 10 to 15 commercial finance companies, some of them banks, that might make a good fit with BB&T as equal partners.

"We've talked to lots of people about doing a merger of equals," Allison told Bloomberg. "In order to survive, we'll have to do another merger of equals over the next five to 10 years. We just have to wait for the right time and the right opportunity."

A "merger of equals" typically brings together two companies with similar market values. BB&T has a market value of about $23.6 billion and assets of $119 billion.

Allison said he expects that banking, securities and insurance in the U.S. will be dominated by a total of only 15 companies a decade from now and that BB&T must get bigger to compete.

Allison has been BB&T's CEO since 1989.