Expansion and profitability of bank branches: a study on selected rural branches of Bangladesh

Using probit regression model on primary data, this study reveals that level of educational qualification, value of asset owned and individual's monthly income, and being married have a positive and significant impact on account opening decision, whereas the value of asset owned, monthly income, number of earning members in the family, and being male and married have a positive and significant impact on the frequency of using banking services in rural area of Bangladesh. Furthermore, fixed effect estimation results on branch-level monthly panel data reveal that branch size, deposit and remittances positively and significantly affects profitability, whereas expense management affects negatively.