As of September 30, 37 banks have got permission from the Bangladesh Bank to open sub-branches, and 30 are now running a total of 1,275 sub-branches in rural and industrial areas, according to data from the BB. It takes Tk 60-70 lakh to open a branch but a sub-branch costs Tk 1.5-10 lakh. Now, all types of banking services including loans applications are available online, so the need for full-fledged bank branches would come down in the upcoming days. “It is a very innovative platform for banking,” said M Fakhrul Alam, MD of One Bank, which has 24 sub-branches. Banking via sub-branch was a new horizon after agent banking, said Bank Asia MD Md Arfan Ali.

Source: Dhaka Tribune November 19, 2020 18:00 UTC