Overall, substantial weaknesses remain that need to be addressed before the banking sector can fully play its role in facilitating sustained economic growth. The biggest challenge continues to be the large overhang of NPLs that still has not been disposed of. Looking back at Figure 9, it is evident that despite a sizeable decline, system-wide NPL ratio remains well over 10 percent. Even more troublesome is the fact that the rate of NPL decline due to debt restructuring seems to have reached a plateau while the rate of NPL increase due to relapse of restructured loans remains high (about 67 percent of the total increase in NPL in the first three quarters of 2003), volatile, and possibly rising. These observations reflect weaknesses in the quality of ongoing debt restructuring that continues to be hampered by inadequacies in the legal framework as well as simply the sheer number of cases that impose large administrative burdens on both the financial and legal system.