BRAC Bank: SMEs Are Not Just Another Business Opportunity, They Are A Reason for Being
BRAC Bank was established in 2001 to help grow the vital, yet unbanked SME sector in Bangladesh. The bank’s reason for being is to serve SMEs; with 186 bank branches, 2,500 specialized SME staff and the provision of more than 60 percent of the collateral-free SME loans in Bangladesh, the bank is doing exactly that.
The overall lending to SMEs by BRAC Bank reached 41 percent of the total loan book at the end of 2017, an increase from 34 percent just two years earlier.