Dhaka, March 24 -- For many years, financial progress in Bangladesh was measured by counting the number of new bank branches opened. When a branch appeared in a rural bazaar, people took it as proof that development had arrived. This way of thinking shaped policy for decades. State banks expanded into rural areas, private banks followed commercial centers, and microfinance institutions filled the remaining gaps. Financial inclusion meant geographic inclusion, and the map of development was literally a map of branches.

Today that map has almost stopped changing. Bangladesh Bank data show that between December 2018 and July 2025 the total number of bank branches increased from 10,281 to 11,388, a rise of barely 11 per cent in nearly seven ...