system. the central bank – bank indonesia has issued detailed circular for banks to avail adr for settling disputes and hence banking mediation has been institutionalized. malaysia has also established financial mediation bureau as an independent body to help resolve disputes between financial institutions and their customers. monetary authority of singapore has been promoting the adr mechanism through educational supportive programs. the central bank of morocco created a system of resolving bank and borrowers disputes. it may be noted that the concept of settling disputes outside court is historically well known to pakistani society in the form of punchayat and jirga etc. the experience of long consumption of time through formal judicial system is very common phenomenon. the courts are over - burdened due to huge backlog of cases. it is in this perspective that law and justice commission of pakistan recommended adr to provide relief to the parties engaged in litigation. accordingly, the government in 2002 had made amendments in civil procedure code under which section 89 b was inserted to empower civil court to adopt adr subject to consent of the parties. a consequential amendment was also made in order x of c. p. c to empower the court to pass necessary orders for expediting the trial proceedings. unfortunately, these provisions have somehow not been fully utilized due to which objective and benefit of these amendments is currently not visible. it would be important to keep in view the fundamentals of banking sector in pakistan while examining the relevance and significance of adr in the prevailing circumstances. besides walk - in customers, over 25 million people currently have regular accounts with banks in pakistan. the deposits of the banking system stand at about rupees 4. 8 trillion whereas loans and advances extended by banks as of december, 2009 were rupees 3. 2 trillion. the amount of nonperforming loans at present is rupees 432 billion. the banks have filed 56320 recovery and execution cases in courts involving rupees 215 billion. the cases filed by borrowers and customers other than recovery suits are in addition to the aforesaid cases. the foregoing facts amply clarifies that there is overreliance on courts for all disputes which the parties cannot resolve themselves. due to high stakes, parties are sensitive to protect their rights. therefore, there is a dire need of putting in place a mechanism of dispute resolution which is speedy, cost effective and just to maintain confidence and continuity of banking transactions. let us look at some elements of existing mechanisms of dispute resolution where sbp

those affected were above all self - employed workers and payroll employees with fixed - term contracts, especially young people and women, who account for a higher share of employment in the sectors most exposed to the crisis. the policies implemented to alleviate its economic effects – such as wage supplementation schemes, the lengthening of the duration of unemployment benefits and the income support measures for selfemployed workers and households in difficulty – have been effective overall, mitigating the shortcomings of the welfare system, due above all to the excessive fragmentation of the instruments available. the surveys conducted by the bank of italy at the end of november suggest that consumption expenditure is being held back by fears of infection, besides the precautionary motive based on economic and financial considerations. the share of households that expect to spend less than their annual income in the next twelve months has increased ; a non - negligible share ( about 20 per cent ) of the households anticipating a decrease in their income also reported that they expect to save. over the course of the month, about 80 per cent of households spent less on tourism and restaurant services compared with november 2019, and reduced the frequency of purchases in clothing stores ; two thirds decreased their spending on personal care services. the contraction for this set of consumption items was greatest in the regions hit hardest by the spread of the epidemic. these indications confirm the importance of a far - reaching and lasting strengthening of the healthcare system and suggest that a fully successful vaccination campaign will be crucial to a stable recovery. the worsening of the health emergency was also reflected in firms ’ assessments of investment conditions, which started to deteriorate again, albeit slightly, in late 2020, especially in some segments of the service sector marked by the presence of a high number of small and micro firms with a limited ability to deal with shocks. our projections point to a recovery in production starting in the spring, although this central scenario hinges crucially upon the progressive attenuation of the epidemic over the course of the coming months. in addition to this, a robust recovery of the economy will require the reactivation of significant plans for investment ; in this respect, a key role will be played by the benefits stemming from a rapid and full implementation of the measures still being drawn up as part of the next generation eu programme. however, it is likely that consumption will pick up slowly, especially in services, owing to the gradual manner in which the uncertainty that drove the propensity to save will be reab