BRAC Bank has asked for permission to open 140 new branches this year as part of a huge expansion scheme aimed at bringing full banking services to rural areas. The move, if approved by Bangladesh Bank, will almost quadruple the size of the bank's existing branch network and will be the backbone of its further push into small and medium sized business lending. "We've planned to set up 100 branches in rural areas out of the proposed 140 new branches,' Abidur Rahman Sikdar, head of marketing and corporate affairs of BRAC Bank, told The Daily Star yesterday. The remaining 40 branches will be in urban and semi-urban areas, he said. At present the bank, which started operation in 2001, has 36 branches. For the past three years BRAC Bank has been the country's fastest growing private bank. Last month the bank announced that it was launching a Tk130 crore rights issue in order to fund expansion and strengthen its capital base. According to the officials, the bank has already had over one lakh SME clients across the country. The bank has disbursed about Tk 4,000 crore to the SME sector in the last three years. Most of the banks in Bangladesh are urban-based and offer poor services outside the cities or major towns. The lack of access to credit in rural areas has been identified by many economists as one of the key factors holding back rural development. "Opening more bank branches in rural areas will help bring about competition, and introduce new levels of efficient services and innovative products to the SME sector,' Rahman said. He said the move would also help rural customers get technology-based services. Currently, the BRAC Bank has 70 ATMs (Automated Teller Machines), 15 CDMs (Cash Deposit Machines), 700 POS (Point Of Sales) terminals, 400 SME Unit Offices and 1,900 Remittance Delivery Points across the country. Bangladesh Bank introduced a refinance scheme for SMEs in May 2004 to provide credit facilities to the sector. Since then the BB refinanced Tk 534.1 crore to 13 banks and 19 financial institutions till August 2007. Among the banks, three banks BRAC, Eastern and Dhaka availed more than half of the refinance facility, Bangladesh Bank statistics show. According to Economic Review 2007 (a government document), a total of 48 commercial banks are operating in Bangladesh. These banks have 6,562 branches, of which 3,839 are in rural areas. Private banks operate only 490 branches in rural areas out of the total figure.