St George Bank has been pursuing a strategy of expanding outside its home base of New South Wales. This push has been going on for some time but accelerated during the past couple of years as the bank sought to avoid being caught in the state's economic doldrums.But yesterday's figures show that the move into Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria is a slow and expensive process. St George chief executive Paul Fegan said residential lending in the three states was up an average of 16 per cent and middle market (business) lending was up 43 per cent in the March half. These figures are well ahead of the bank's overall lending growth - 11 per cent in home loans and 32 per cent in middle market lending.Despite the strong growth, the share of total receivables sourced from Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia did not budge. It was 31 per cent last September and it was 31 per cent at the end of March. The bank has a long way to go before its investment in those states has any material impact on the balance sheet.In the 2007 financial year the bank opened two retail sites and two co-located business and retail sites in Queensland. It opened five new co-located business and retail sites in Western Australia.The pace of expansion slackened in the latest half. The bank opened one retail site in Queensland and on co-located site on Western Australia.Its plan for the current half is to open two new retail sites in Victoria, where it has 37 already, three retail and two co-located sites in Queensland, where it has 28, and one retail site in Western Australia, where it has nine.The bank has a strong presence in South Australia and Northern Territory through its subsidiary BankSA.