Rupali Bank Limited (RBL), a state-owned commercial bank (SoCB) has reduced the number of loss-making branches drastically in 2018.
According to sources concerned in the bank, RBL has registered a whopping 76 per cent success in reducing the number of loss-making branches across the country.
"Now we have reduced the number to only eight which was 33 in 2017 calendar year and 143 in 2016 and it was possible only for our concerted efforts to improve the overall governance in the state-owned bank," a senior official of RBL told the FE on Wednesday.
Currently, the public bank is running businesses with 568 branches across the country in fully automated system.
The bank management said they stressed the need for serving the teeming millions in rural areas, rather than earning more profit.
"We like to reach to the doorsteps of people of rural areas."
According to provisional calculation, RBL earned a total of Tk 3.70 billion as operating profit in 2018 against Tk 5.41 billion in 2017.
The RBL has already taken some positive measures including slashing the interest rates under single-digit, bringing more renowned corporate entities under its network and expanding the mobile-based banking services.
"We are happy to note that we have been able to reduce the interest rates as per the latest decision of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) and no doubt, it will help the investment-flow as well as create more employment opportunities for the unemployed youths," the RBL source told the FE.
The state-owned bank has also been able to bring some leading corporate entities of the country under its 'core banking activities'.
"Big conglomerates like Pran-RFL, Abul Khair, BSRM, Nitol Motors and Noman Group are now our corporate clients and inclusion of such leading corporate entities will definitely broaden our image and visibility in the country's growing economic sector."
He said the SoCB is now consulting with Akij and Nasir Groups to finance their projects.
Corporate insiders said big conglomerates are now being attracted by some state-owned commercial banks for borrowing at comparatively cheaper rates as private commercial banks are suffering from liquidity crunch to finance big projects.
Rupali Bank is also giving top priority to invest in the small and medium enterprises (SME) instead of big projects for minimising risk.
The SoCB is now expediting investment particularly in SME and agriculture sectors using its large network across the country.
Rupali Bank has a huge network with about 13 million clients under its 'Rupali Bank Surecash' product.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated this product on March 1, 2017 under which parents receive the stipend money of their children who are studying at primary schools on their mobile phones.
Such amount of stipend money disbursed under 'Rupali Bank Surecash' was Tk 11.67 billion in 2017 only.
With the launching of this mobile financial service, Rupali Bank has been able to save Tk 4.0 billion annually as there remains some room for forgery and cheating in the age-old manual system.
"Our bank is relentlessly trying to expand the mobile-based financial services to serve the teeming millions across the country," the Rupali Bank source asserted.
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