By Saeed Azhar and Pritam Biswas

(Reuters) - PNC Financial Services Group (NYSE: PNC ) would look at banks with core retail deposits in the right markets for mergers and acquisitions, but would avoid lenders with heavy real estate exposure, its CEO said on Tuesday.

"What we would look for is somebody with - think about what our strategic need was - right core retail deposits in the right markets," CEO William Demchak said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services conference.

"Many of these institutions have lost a lot of their core retail franchise and their deposit base is heavily related to real estate and assets we don't want to own. It's just the math doesn't work," he said.

President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House could usher in a wave of bank mergers and acquisitions as the administration appoints regulators who are more open to approving larger deals, financial executives and analysts say.

Large regional banks such as US Bancorp (NYSE: USB ), Truist Financial (NYSE: TFC ) and PNC Bank are likely to be involved in mergers or acquisitions, industry experts have said.

In April, Demchak sent a letter to regulators advocating for a merger policy that "is capable of building challengers to the largest Global Systemically Important Banks in the United States," a group known as G-SIBs.