The banking industry has increased focus on loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which have been remained ignored for years despite the sector's huge contribution to the economy, as banks would set up 139 SME service centres by this year. Bankers believe the move would help banks cope with the declining demand from big corporate clients mainly due to the global financial turmoil. Besides four state-owned commercial banks, nearly half a dozen private banks have planned to boost lending to the SMEs this year through setting up separate divisions, officials said. These private banks are Prime, The City, Eastern, United Commercial and Pubali banks.
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