Dhaka, Dec. 26 -- Banks are increasingly sourcing deposit from the countryside but their focus on rural Bangladesh keeps fading following tightfisted disbursement of formal credits, widening urban-rural financing gaps, sources say.

At the same time, the number of bank branches in the least-developed but promising areas remains almost stuck for months, leaving the potential of local economy in the lurch.

Officials and bankers have identified several factors, such as the rising cost of funds and production in this higher-interest-and-inflation regime that markedly lowered the demand for credits in the rural areas amid persisting economic sluggishness.

As a result, the flow of fresh disbursements into the rural communities continued to dr...