SBAC Bank to increase number of branches to 50

South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce (SBAC) Bank Ltd has planned to increase the number of its branches to 50 by this year aiming to expand its network and render services across the country, its top official said.
Started its journey about two years back, the SBAC Bank already opened 34 branches with full-fledged online services till January this year in different places of the country.
"We have a plan to increase the branches to 50 by December, 2015. …opening of 10 branches is to be completed by June," Md Rafiqul Islam, managing director and CEO of the bank, said at its annual report 2014.
"Our strategic priorities and action plan for future are to expand of branch network throughout the country to make banking facilities available at the remote area," Mr Islam said.
According to the annual report unveiled at the bank's 2nd Annual general Meeting (AGM) held at its head office in the city Saturday, the proposed 10 branches will be set up in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rangpur, Jessore, Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Madaripur, Bagerhat and Satkhira.
S.M. Amzad Hossain, chairman of SBAC Bank, was the chief guest while Mr Islam gave his welcome speech at the AGM. The meeting was attended, among others, by members of the bank's board of directors, a number of shareholders and senior officials.
In 2014, the SBAC Bank earned operating profit worth Tk 318.42 million, which was Tk 139.16 million in its first year 2013, as per the report.
Its deposit in 2014 was Tk 18,641.90 million against Tk 4,441.95 million in the previous year while loan and advances was Tk 13,518.05 million against the Tk 3,006.76 million in 2013.
The bank's cost of fund was 13.27 per cent in 2014 and 15.45 per cent in 2013, and Earnings Per Share (EPS) was 0.16 and 0.11 in the years 2014 and 2013 respectively.
As of December 31, 2014, there were 377 employees at the bank.
In the year 2014, the bank contributed Tk 103.61 million as tax to the government exchequer, Tk 38.89 million as advance tax and Tk 40.60 million as value added tax (VAT) and excise duty.
The bank also joined the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) in October 2014, enabling its plastic cardholders to use around 5,600 ATMs of different banks under the network across the country.
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