Bangladesh Bank has directed the private commercial banks to open more branches in the rural areas to maintain the same ratio to those in the urban areas.

The directive came through a circular on Thursday, making a 1:1 proportion mandatory for rural and urban branches. The order will come into effect immediately.

Bangladesh Bank sources said that the decision has been taken with an objective to spread the banking services among the people of rural areas who have been deprived of banking facilities.

The circular mentioned that the branches, opened in city corporation or municipality areas, will be considered as urban branches while the branches set up out of the city corporation or municipalities, will be counted as rural branches.

If any region comes under a municipality or city corporation, branches located in the region will be counted as urban branches, the circular said.

For the newly created municipalities, the branches set up their earlier will be considered as urban branches, it added.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 25th Dec 2011