France's Credit Agricole is expected to pick Alpha Bank as the preferred bidder for its ailing Greek unit Emporiki Bank, a banking source close to the talks said on Sunday.

"They picked Alpha as the preferred bidder," the source said, citing information from one of the other bidders in the sale. National Bank and Eurobank had also bid for Emporiki.

Credit Agricole is looking to pull out of Greece after Emporiki was hammered by the country's debt crisis.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Patrick Graham)