Prominent among them were (a) privatization of nationalized commercial banks and fostering competition, (b) strengthening regulatory supervisory and enforcement capacity of the SBP, (c) lowering the cost of capital by dealing with non performing loans, reducing corporate tax burden and bringing cost-income ratios down, (d) revising the legal structure particularly the foreclosure laws (e) broad basing access to the middle income and lower income groups by opening up provision of credit for agriculture, SMEs, consumer financing and micro credit (f) introducing and enforcing stringent corporate governance, internal controls, transparency and enhanced disclosure standards (g) liberalizing the foreign exchange regime and (h) promoting technological upgradation of the banking industry through Ebanking, ATMs etc.
A financial sector assessment carried out jointly by the World Bank and the IMF conclude that Pakistan had been able to establish a sound, efficient financial system that can withstand exogenous shocks. The restructured financial system has responded well to the expansionary monetary policy that was pursued during the period 2001/02 – 2003/04 to stimulate aggregate demand and kick-start the economy.