Palli Sanchay Bank starts operations

The Palli Sanchay Bank (PSB) , a specialised bank specifically targeting clients in rural areas,  has finally started its commercial operations from December last year.
A total of 300 upazila branches out of 485 approved branches have already started functioning while the rest are preparing to start operation shortly.
Initially the branches started transaction for the group societies of "Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar, EBEK (one house one farm)" project of the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division (RDCD). The project beneficiaries will also be able to deal with the bank separately soon, PSB Managing Director Akbar Hossain told The Daily Observer on Tuesday.
He said, initially the group societies of the EBEK formed before 2016 and its beneficiaries will be the clients of the bank. Afterwards other groups and beneficiaries will become clients.
The government established the specialized bank to implement the EBEK project to eliminate poverty by introducing micro-credit programmes to its members.
At present, the number of beneficiaries of the project is around 32.70 lakh people falling under some 67,757 societies across the country. The savings of beneficiaries now stands at Tk1, 221.58 crore. The government has given Tk1, 025.56 crore as bonus for the members while it has given 1,507.76 crore as revolving fund according to its terms and conditions.
Including all, the total fund of the project now stands at 4,133.27 crore. By the end of the final phase of the project, stretching between the years 2016 to 2020, the fund is expected to rise to 7,822.56 crore.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated 100 branches by holding a video conference of the project on July 22, 2016.
Akbar Hossain, also the Project Director of EBEK, told that the PSB has already started online banking with its clients. Around 300 branches are already working with modern software. The software will be transferred to other branches by February this year.
The bank accounts of the group societies, formed before 2016 and its beneficiaries have already been transferred to the bank. The rest will also be transferred shortly.