Dec. 24, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Bank of China<601988><3988>, the country's largest foreign-exchange lender, recently set up a subsidiary in Dublin, BOC Ireland Co Ltd, that is expected to be officially operational at the start of next year, sources reported.

BOC Ireland is a non-bank financial institution that will manage the financial business of BOC. It will help its parent with big-ticket credit business, including consortium loans, bilateral loans and trade financing.

BOC held an opening ceremony for its Nagoya branch in Japan on Dec. 18.

Vice President of BOC Chen Siqing said that China and Japan’s financial and economic cooperation is in a period of steady development, which offers BOC great opportunities for expansion in Japan.

So far, BOC has set up overseas institutions in 30 countries and regions.