PARIS, Aug 1 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas is in exclusive talks with French insurer AXA to buy 100% of its AXA Investment Managers arm at an agreed price of 5.1 billion euros ($5.50 billion), the euro zone's biggest bank said on Thursday.

The would-be combined entity would have total assets under management of about 1.5 trillion euros ($1.62 trillion), BNP said in a statement, and it would become one of the top European asset managers after leader Amundi, which had 2.16 trillion euros of assets under management at end of June.

BNP said it expected the transaction to close in mid-2025.

($1 = 0.9276 euros) (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)