Chairman Senate Mohammadmian Soomro on Saturday observed that vigilant supervisory role by the State Bank helped in overcoming the problems faced by the banks and to strengthen the depository system.
He made these remarks while delivering a lecture on "restructuring the banks" at the Egyptian Banking Institute, Alexandria, said a fax message received here from Cairo.
It may be mentioned here that the Egyptian Banking Institute of Central Bank of Egypt had invited the Chairman Senate, to deliver lecture on the restructuring of the banking system in Pakistan with a view to benefit from his experience.
The Senate Chairman, in his keynote address said that despite a number of problems and difficulties confronting the banking sector, Pakistan was able to improve the health and soundness of the banking sector in recent years.
The Chairman admitted that though there were few weak and vulnerable institutions but the banking sector as a whole, is much stronger now as compared to five years ago or in comparison to other countries in the region.
The Chairman informed the audience that strong corporate governance is absolutely essential if the bank have to co-operate in a transparent manner and protect the interest of the depositors.
He pointed out that State Bank took several measures aimed at putting place good governance practices to improve internal control and bring about a change in the organisation culture.
A complete revamping of agriculture credit scheme has recently been done with the help of commercial banks, which was limited to production loans for inputs, he said.
The broadening of the scope and the removal of other restrictions enabled the commercial bank to increase their lending for agriculture manifold, added the Senate Chairman.