& creating any sort of panic amongst the borrowers or the clients of the banks. several cases of delicate in nature were dealt with in close cooperation amongst sbp, nab & concerned banking company in a professional way. sbp has been forwarding complaints received from the banks / dfis to bureau for initiating investigation, under the provisions of nao, against those entities / persons which had cheated / deprived the public of their hard earned money through illegal brokerage and banking business. sbp, in collaboration with secp, has been advertising a message titled “ public warning ” in print media to keep the general public aware of the fake schemes / scams launched by the fraudulent companies / noncorporate entities / individuals. state bank of pakistan has also been playing its role in facilitating the banking sector in their efforts to recover from borrowers their long outstanding defaulted loan amounts by referring such cases of willful loan default to nab for inquiry, investigation and proceedings against them wherever required. about 100 such cases amounting to rs. 17. 5 billion approximately were processed & referred to nab under section 31 - d of national accountability ordinance, 1999. i appreciate the role of nab in speedy processing of these cases which helped not only in recovery of defaulted amount but also saved depositors money. the names of the corrupt persons convicted by nab under the provisions of nao, 1999 are also shared with the banking industry. the persons convicted under 25 ( b ) of nao, 1999 are debarred from obtaining any fresh loans from banking sector for a period of ten year from the date of conviction. such weeding out of corrupt elements, from the potential clientele of banking sector, has lead to more prudent lending decisions other than developing a critical data base for the sector. ladies and gentlemen, development of human resource in the banking industry on sustainable basis is a continuous process. taking lead in this front on an ongoing basis and conducting workshops, seminars, awareness programs, training sessions internally as well as for the benefit of the banking industry has become an integral part of our efforts to curb corrupt practices, money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. the financial institutions are now less proned to be used as “ the safe heavens ” for the corrupt persons owing to the effective coordination mechanism developed amongst the financial institutions, sbp and nab. the introduction of compliance culture and establishment of a separate compliance department manned with skilled and professional officers has also helped in eradication of unlawful and

hence, the regulatory approach has remained gradual and in line with the evolution of the sector … ” “ in the new microfinance strategic framework 2011 – 15, sbp has laid out a detailed strategy to promote sustainable growth of the sector. the strategy ’ s effectiveness and success hinges on growth dynamism fundamentally coming from microfinance operators themselves. the role of sbp is to develop the banking infrastructure, to encourage the use of successful global practices, and to provide the regulatory and supervisory mechanism that enable mfbs to develop viable business models ”. 14. we shall soon have the pleasure of hearing our distinguished speaker, professor banerjee ’ s, thoughts on this subject. i am sure his lecture today will introduce us with something special on the topic, not only because of his extensive research on the subject but also because of candidness of his approach. perhaps, not many of us will have witnessed this openness and honesty of thoughts earlier – the kind that is evident from the last sentence of the concluding chapter of his most recent book titled “ poor economics ”. let me quote that very sentence for you : “ at least we can stop pretending that there is some solution at hand and instead join hands with millions of well - intentioned people across the world – elected officials and bureaucrats, teachers and ngo workers, academics and entrepreneurs – in the quest for the many ideas, big and small, that will eventually take us to that world where no one has to live on 99 cents per day ”. 15. now let ’ s turn to our guest speaker himself. ladies and gentlemen, we are honoured to have with us, dr. abhijit vinayak banerjee, the ford foundation international professor of economics at the massachusetts institute of technology, usa. his teaching and research have won him accolades the world over and he stands as a giant in his profession. just to introduce him to our guests here, dr. banerjee has attended the university of calcutta, jawaharlal nehru university and harvard university, successfully earning his ph. d from the latter. 16. during 1988 to 1992, he taught as an assistant professor of economics at princeton university. he moved to harvard university in 1992 as assistant professor of economics, before joining the m. i. t. in 1993 as pentti j. k. kouri career development associate professor of economics. he became associate professor of economics in 1994 and then professor of economics in 1996. he is the co - founder of