Banking sector witnessed a rapid expansion in the past four and a half years when the number of depositors grew by a staggering 56.0 per cent with opening of 1,527 new branches.

According to a document of Bangladesh Bank (BB) released on Sunday, the number of depositors till December 2012 was 5.88 crore. The growth in depositors was 56.0 per cent over the 3.76 crore depositors in December 2008.

The growth in borrowers’ number, however, was only 12.0 per cent during the period as their number rose to 95.98 lakh in 2012 from 85.79 lakh in 2008.

The document shows that in the last four and a half years, private banks opened more branches than the state-owned commercial and specialized banks when the number of rural branches exceeded the urban branches unlike previous years