Dhaka, April 16 -- Bangladesh's agent banking revolution has a paradox at its heart; over the past decade, the country has built one of South Asia's most extensive agent banking networks over 21,000 outlets stretching from the river deltas of Barishal to the highland fringes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, twenty-four million accounts have been opened, the majority by people in rural areas who had never held a bank account in their lives.

But a new policy brief by the International Growth Centre (IGC) found that while agent banking in Bangladesh has significantly widened financial access over the past decade, major gaps remain in credit delivery and gender participation.

The study, hosted by the University of Oxford and the London School...