Impact of Bank Branch Expansion on Credit Disbursement in India Anwar Mohd Pursuing Ph.D., Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai-400073 JEL Classification: E51, G21 Online published on 15 April, 2014. Abstract A large number of studies have been attempted to investigate the relationship between banks and various socio-economic factors. In this article, we have attempted to understand the effect of expansion of branches of Indian Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) on the credit disbursement. For the empirical investigations of commencing study, various panel data sets have been prepared by using the several cross-section units. The econometric models have been estimated by using the panel data analysis methodology. The estimation of regression equations demonstrates that branch expansion of the banks have a significant and positive effect on credit disbursement across the various states, but bank branch expansion have also been undertaken with the purpose of acquiring the deposits from some of the states. Moreover, the sector wise findings elucidate that branch expansion has a significant and positive effect on the credit disbursement in the sectors viz., industry, transport operators, professional and other services and finance sector across the country. For the sectors like industry, transport operators, professional and other services and finance, the expansion of branches of SCBs have a significant and positive effect on the credit disbursement across the country. This study emphasizes that branch expansion by the nationalized banks and regional rural banks need to be undertaken with the perspective of credit disbursement across the rural and semi urban area of the country. Top Keywords Credit disbursement, deposits mobilization, number of credit accounts, bank branch expansion, scheduled commercial banks. Top |