By Luciana Magalhaes

SAO PAULO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A pair of Brazilian financial heavyweights has submitted the most competitive offers so far to acquire the local unit of Swiss-based lender Julius Baer BAER.S, a person familiar with the deal said on Monday.

The source pointed to investment bank BTG Pactual BPAC3.SA and local financial institution XP Investimentos as having made the top two offers.

The first round of bidding occurred late last year and "proposals by BTG and XP aligned more closely with Julius Baer's expectations," the person added.

Banks Santander and Safra also participated in the first round of bidding, according to the same source.

Julius Baer, BTG, XP, Santander and Safra declined to comment on the potential deal.

Earlier on Monday, O Globo newspaper reported that BTG was set to announce the acquisition of the Julius Baer unit this week for approximately 1 billion reais ($164 million), though the paper did not disclose its source of information.

According to the source close to the transaction, Julius Baer considered its Brazilian unit to be worth around 1.4 billion reais.

In November, Reuters reported that Julius Baer had tapped Goldman Sachs to advise on the sale.

$1 = 6.12 Brazilian reais

(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Matthew Lewis)

((Luciana.NovaesMagalhaes@thomsonreuters.com;))