BOC Bets on Auto Financing.

(From SinoCast China Financial Watch)

BEIJING, August 28, SinoCast -- Bank of China (3988.HK; 601988.SH), the country's third biggest lender by assets, opened an auto financing joint venture with two partners in Beijing. The venture, the first such one backed by a commercial bank in China, is 50 percent owned by BOC's wholly owned subsidiary Bank of China Group Insurance Co. who is registered in Hong Kong in 1992. French-based car bellwether PSA Peugeot Citroen contributed 25 percent to the newborn venture's CNY 500 million registered capital and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile also 25 percent. The three signed a letter of intent as early as September 2004 and got …