On April 11, Bank of China (BOC) spokesperson Wang Zhaowen refuted rumors that the Royal Bank of Scotland was going to buy a stake in BOC, calling it "unreal."

Wang said the BOC is now negotiating with around ten potential overseas strategic investors, but refused to identify who they were. However, he did confirm that the Bank of America was involved in multi-billion dollar investment talks.

Media speculation began more than a week ago, after the Beijing representative office of the Bank of America revealed on April 4 that it was considering investing up to US$2 billion for a stake in a large Chinese bank.

Earlier in Hong Kong, Bank of America's CEO Ken Lewis had made a statement saying that it was considering purchasing a stake in a Chinese bank for future strategic cooperation, but did not specify which. A 5 percent stake in the BOC would cost US$1.5 billion.

An authority from the BOC also disclosed that it would probably cooperate with one of its selected overseas investors – the Bank of America – on credit card business.

On March 2, the BOC signed a cooperation agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea. They agreed to work together in areas such as financing, trust, export credit information exchange and consulting.

China's finance sector will be completely open to foreign capital in 2006.

(China.org.cn, Chinanews.cn April 13, 2005)