NEW YORK – General Motors Acceptance Corp., the financial services unit of General Motors Corp., will sell up to $20 billion in U.S. retail automotive assets to Scotia Capital, the investment banking unit of Bank of Nova Scotia, according to Reuters.

The agreement calls for purchases by Scotiabank under a $6 billion revolving facility. The facility represents funding for up to $20 billion of GMAC retail automotive contracts in the U.S. during a five-year period from November 2005 to October 2010. In addition, Scotiabank will make an initial purchase of $3 billion this month.

Under the terms of the agreement, Scotiabank will purchase a host of GMAC’s active U.S. retail auto finance contracts, which GMAC will continue to service. According to GMAC CFO Sanjiv Khattri, the company expects to sell $15 billion of auto whole loans in 2005 through bilateral agreements, multi-buyer syndicated structures and full securitizations.