Mohammad Ali:

BRAC Bank Limited, the largest SME bank in the country, has disbursed Tk 3430 million till January this year compared to the corresponding period of previous year, indicating a thriving growth of the bank's SME business in 2012, a top official of the bank said.

The bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Syed Mahbubur Rahman told the FE, "Our target of SME disbursement is Tk 3500 million to Tk 4000 million per year. In spite of liquidity crisis and other financial pressure, we will continue and gradually increase our services."

He, however, requested the customers to keep their commitments.

Small and medium enterprises (SME) sector is showing huge credit demand for business expansion at the very beginning of the New Year, a sign of vibrant economic activities and a productive year ahead.

In October last year, BRAC Bank broke all of its' previous SME disbursement records and posted the highest gross disbursement of Tk 4630 million, the MD said.

This remarkable disbursement of SME resulted in a net growth of the bank's SME asset portfolio by Tk 2120 million, which itself is another record for the private commercial banks doing SME business, he said.

Now the BRAC Bank's SME banking asset portfolio stood at Tk 44,314 million, Mr Rahman said.

"As a SME bank, we always try to expand our SME portfolio to reach more unbanked entrepreneurs in rural areas. We have seen phenomenal growth in SME credit last year. We are happy that it helps national economy to rebound strongly. We will put up all-out effort to do better this year in SME front," the managing director said.

Infusion of fresh fund in country's SME sector helped put economy in strong footing, he said, adding that industrial and business expansion was creating employment and helping the economy shake off strains.

At a time of liquidity pressure, BRAC Bank continued to expand its SME portfolio, which was 50 per cent of its total portfolio, reaching more investors and covering more areas, Mr Rahman continued.

Till now, BRAC Bank disbursed more than Tk 182,667 million to 376,350 SME entrepreneurs mostly in the rural areas, generating 1.2 million employments there, he said. With the efforts, the name of BRAC Bank now went with small and medium business in the country, he added.